Every Villain is a Hero
by CatChester
Summary: In an attempt to rehabilitate Loki, he is magically bonded to a telepathic human, in the hopes that being forced to feel her emotions, will make him face the horror of his actions. Sent back to Earth with Thor as his bodyguard, things get complicated, when the Hulk attacks Stark. Thor then disappears. Will Loki help the Avengers find his brother, or will he leave Thor to his fate?
1. Chapter 1

In a last ditch effort to rehabilitate Loki, he is magically bonded to a telepathic human, in the hopes that being forced to feel her emotions, will make him face the horror of his actions. Sent back to Earth with Thor as his bodyguard, things become complicated, when the Hulk attacks Stark. Having gone to NY to help, Thor then disappears. Will Loki help the Avengers find his brother, or will he leave Thor to his fate?

* * *

Norse proverb: An ill-tempered, unhappy man, ridicules all he hears, makes fun of others.

**Chapter One**

Lisa tried to remember why she had agreed to do this but right now, none of her reasons sounded very convincing.

"Lady Mason, are you ready?"

She looked into Thor's eyes and he smiled as reassuringly as he could. It didn't help.

"No." her voice sounded small and weak. She hated the sound of it. "But I will be." She tried to inject more feeling into her words than she felt but was only partly successful.

Thor however, obviously fell for her bravado as his smile widened. While everyone else around her was nervous, Thor was completely relaxed. Did he really not foresee the numerous possible difficulties?

"Good." He clamped a hand to her shoulder which although meant to be a comradely gesture, almost knocked her off her feet. "Take my hand."

She looked at the hand he held towards her, much as she might if it were a venomous snake.

"You don't have to do this," Natasha spoke up.

"She's right, you don't," Clint agreed.

Erik Selvig, stepped up behind her and leaned in.

"I would echo their sentiments, but I know that you believe you must do this," he said softly.

"It's the only way," she told him, looking back over her shoulder.

He nodded in understanding. "You'll be back here soon; Jane and Darcy will be waiting for you and Thor will look after you."

She gave him a grateful smile. "You think I'm insane, don't you?"

"Doesn't matter what I think, what matters is what you can live with."

She nodded, considering his words. "You're right, thank you."

"It's just cold feet," Stark quipped. "Don't worry, I'd be nervous too if I were marrying a genocidal demi-god. In fact, I'd be worried about you if you were looking forward to this."

Lisa glared at him.

"It is not a marriage-" Thor began to explain but Stark cut him off.

"Empathic connection, blah blah, whatever, same difference."

"Maybe someone should go with you," Natasha suggested.

"No, no need for that," Lisa said, taking Thor's hand, she didn't want to inconvenience anyone. "I'm ready."

"Hold tight." Thor pulled her in closer and wrapped a hand around her waist. Looking to the sky, he called, "Heimdall?" and a bright light enveloped her.

The sensation was rather like a rollercoaster, where she was pushed, buffeted and turned around so often that she hardly knew which way was up, so it took her a few moments to regain her footing once they landed. Thankfully, Thor's strong arms held her upright.

Had it not been for the upcoming events, she might have enjoyed the ride but now, it just made her feel queasy.

Once she had her bearings, her eyes alighted on Heimdall. She had done a lot of reading in preparation for this but even if she hadn't known his true nature, she would have seen the wisdom in his kindly eyes.

"Welcome to Asgard," he said in a loud, deep but oddly soothing voice.

"Thank you." She managed to say but her dry mouth meant it came out as more of a squeak.

Thor took his arm from around her when he thought she steady enough to walk under her own power.

"Come, the horses are waiting." Thor strode from the unusual chamber, leaving Lisa little option but to follow him.

"Sorry," she said to Heimdall, as if she were supposed to remain and make small talk. Small talk was probably a human trait though, not something Asgardians had to worry about.

Thor stood ready to give her a leg up into the saddle and although she was perfectly capable of mounting a horse, she let him help her. The horse gave a soft whinny as she settled herself and she patted its neck. "Good boy."

Thor had mounted his horse and with a nod to her, set it to canter over the rainbow bridge. Lisa followed suit.

* * *

Odin observed her from his throne and Lisa did her best not to fidget. Thor had introduced them but Odin hadn't spoken since. She wondered what he was thinking but unusually, she couldn't tell. That probably couldn't be a good sign though.

"You have our gratitude for agreeing to this arrangement." Odin finally proclaimed.

Lisa nodded, unable to speak at the moment.

"Thor will take you to our healer to be prepared."

'_Like a stuffed turkey,'_ she thought. _'Or a sacrificial lamb, that might be more accurate.'_

She followed Thor through the halls of his castle, her eyes alighting on many beautiful objects as they walked yet later, she would be unable to recall a single one.

She was ushered into a room with a servant and told to change. She could see nothing wrong with the jeans and shirt she was wearing, but reasoned that perhaps the metal in zippers affected the procedures or something.

It felt very odd to have someone helping her dress but when she saw the armour like breastplate, she realised she would need help. Thankfully she was able to keep her underwear on and that small piece of home comforted her.

Once dressed, she was escorted to a medical bay and was told to lie down on some kind of medical table, which was cold and uncomfortable. She watched silently as a woman, who introduced herself as Eir, worked some kind of holographic machinery that formed above Lisa. Thor watched proceedings from the side-lines, looking contemplative.

"There, she is strong enough withstand the bonding," Eir said after perhaps ten minutes.

"You're sure?" Thor asked the healer.

"Absolutely."

"Good, then we will take the chance for some sustenance before the ceremony begins." He held out a chivalrous hand for Lisa, who accepted and allowed him to lead her from the room.

"I think I'm too nervous to eat," she admitted.

"Then drink. We have fine ale that will give you, what do you mortals call it, Dutch courage?"

She nodded. "Got anything stronger than ale?"

Thor laughed, thinking she was joking.

She watched as Thor ate, trying to ignore the stares she was getting. She kept her hands wrapped around the tankard she held, as if she were warming her hands on a hot beverage.

"Do you have any questions?" Thor asked.

"No. I don't think so." She did but she just couldn't think of them right now.

"Do you know what happens?"

"Just a little," she admitted, so he explained the steps to her as she sipped her drink.

* * *

Odin's throne room was massive, easily the size of a football field and looking to be made mostly of gold. It reminded her of Donald Trump's New York home, and no, that wasn't a compliment. Lisa preferred simplicity to ostentation.

There were only about a dozen people there, all standing on ceremony, either side of Odin's throne. The trek to reach them seemed to take forever but once standing before the Nordic God, she suddenly wished the walk had taken longer.

"He is on his way," Odin told her, well probably Thor, but she nodded her understanding regardless.

She wondered why his throne was set so high. It was an expression of power, people had no choice but to literally 'look up' to him but in her experience, those with true power did not need grandiose statements to reinforce their position.

She looked around those gathered here. As well as Odin on the dais, there was Thor and his four warrior friends. Two guards stood either side of their king, two stood halfway down the grand hall and a final two stood by the entrance. The guards stood absolutely still, not moving at all and with their ostentatious armour and helmets, they reminded her of the red coated, mounted Queen's Life Guard in London. It was like a little piece of home on this strange planet.

She suddenly looked to the female warrior, Sif, who was contemplating Lisa and her motives, thinking her some kind of pervert. Lisa didn't care what these strangers thought of her and didn't bother to correct the woman. Fandral however, looked at her with pride and offered a small smile when she caught his eye.

The metallic clank of chains distracted her and she turned to see the war criminal, Loki, God of Mischief, being led in to the chamber, his hands and feet shackled with chains. Ten guards surrounded him and at the rear of the party, came a man she didn't know.

Her hands began to tremble and she clasped them behind her back.

Loki eyed her with contempt as he approached but quickly looked away, dismissing her.

"Father," Loki said with disdain as he drew to a stop.

"Loki. It was your mother's final wish was that you be rehabilitated and unbeknownst to me, she had consulted many sources to help with that endeavour. I did not believe her, until I learnt of the aid you lent Thor in dealing with the Dark Elves. You risked your life for your brother and protected his mortal. I took comfort in the fact that you had died with honour, and I regretted not listening to your mother."

Lisa risked a glance at Loki, who was standing almost opposite her. He looked bored but she could detect interest in his father's words.

"Then I awoke to find that you had used your trickery to fool everyone and tried to claim the throne from me."

Loki smirked, pleased with himself.

"I have tried everything I know to get you to take responsibility for your crimes, yet you refuse to see the truth in your actions."

"Please tell me that an execution is on the cards," Loki interrupted. "I'm honestly not sure how much more pontificating I can stand."

"No, Loki. I made your mother a promise, the last one I made to her, and I will do everything I can to keep that promise. As such, I sentence you to five years living among the people of Midgard."

Loki seemed to like that idea.

"You will be bonded to a human during this time and it was your mother's express hope that she and the people of earth, will finally teach you empathy and humility."

Loki's eyes cut to her for a fraction of a second and the anger she felt frightened her.

"Define 'bonded'." Loki said.

Odin didn't, instead he gestured for the unknown man at the back of the party to come forward.

"You're going to magically bond me with a human?" Loki scoffed. "Please."

"You and I will return to Midgard with her, Loki," Thor spoke up. "You will be as good as free."

"'As good as free' isn't the same as actually being free," Loki said with contempt.

"Still, it is better than a cell in the dungeon," Thor reminded him.

The magician pushed his hood back to reveal a wizened face. He held a hand out to Lisa who, after a quick glance at Thor for reassurance, stepped forward and took his hand. He held his hand out for Loki and after an eye roll, a scoff and a sigh, he gave the magician his hand.

"You could at least buy me a drink first," Loki teased her.

Lisa kept her eyes averted.

Taking each by the wrist, their hands were held upright then brought together, palm to palm and some kind of magic was used to bind their wrists with a black silk rope. Lisa kept her eyes on the old man, unwilling to risk looking into Loki's eyes in case what she saw there frightened her off. Once this was over there was no going back, so she just have to keep her nerve long enough to get the ceremony over with.

"Bondage isn't really my thing but I suppose I could be converted."

Lisa gritted her teeth and tried not to issue the sharp retort that was on the tip of her tongue.

The magician walked around them and repeated the procedure with their other hands. Loki's hands were cool to the touch but not cold, and his skin was far more calloused that she had expected. Didn't princes live lives of luxury? Why the callouses?

The old man reached up then, and placed a hand on the back of both their heads, turning them so Loki and Lisa were facing each other. Lisa still kept her eyes down, avoiding Loki's gaze. With a little gentle pressure, he brought their heads together until their foreheads touched; an oddly intimate gesture for two perfect strangers. The old man was reciting something in his head and Lisa gasped as the silk bonds at her wrists tightened, merging into the skin and leaving her wrist discoloured for a few moments, until it finally faded away and her wrist looked normal again.

It wasn't normal of course. For the next five years, she thought that little about her life would be normal but the hardest part, the decision, was over now. Sink or swim, there was no going back.

The magician stepped away, turned to give Odin a nod, then resumed his position at the rear of the guards.

"Remove the shackles," Odin said, and Lisa was a little shocked to realise that although the ritual was over, she hadn't moved.

Self-consciously she stepped back, rubbing her palms against the voluminous skirts of her robes, as if to rub Loki's touch off.

The two guards who had been holding Loki's shackles stepped forward and removed the cuffs from his wrists, feet, waist and neck.

"Don't worry, I'm a very considerate lover," Loki assured her.

Lisa glared at him. "In my experience, if a man has to say that, it usually means the reverse is true,"

Thor gave a bark of laughter and Loki glared at her. If looks could kill, she would be long gone now.

"The ceremony is designed to create a firm bond between lovers but the purpose here is not romance, Loki." Odin explained. "You have been bonded to this woman so that you can feel her emotions."

Loki's pale face turned ashen.

"You mean-"

"Any pain she feels, you will feel too, any joy she experiences, you will also share."

Lisa almost asked why he didn't explain that the bond worked both ways, but then she realised that Odin didn't care about her; whether her experience was good or bad, she simply had to suffer through feeling Loki's emotions. Considering that Loki was being punished for crimes committed against the humans of Midgard, Odin himself didn't actually seem to care very much about humans. She had already realised that part of the reason Thor was returning with them, was to give him time to get over Jane Foster. Odin believed humans to be beneath Asgardians and she was quite sure that if the Earth stood between Odin and a foe, he would slaughter millions more than his son had, without a second thought.

Still, she hadn't agreed to this because she liked Odin.

"And what happens at the end?" Loki asked.

"That depends on you. Go now; Thor will keep me informed of your progress."

Loki flexed his hands to restore the circulation and smiled coldly at his father. "Then this is goodbye. Don't worry, Father, I'll send you a postcard."

Loki and Thor took a step away but Lisa stayed where she was, panicking that Odin had forgotten her side of this bargain. "Sir!" she said with as much bravado as she possessed. "What of our deal?"

"You will address me as All-father, Your Highness or My King."

"But I'm not your subject, Sir, and I already have both a father and a Queen."

She could almost feel Loki smile but the truth was, it was fear making her sassy, not an insubordinate nature.

Thor stepped up behind her and the hand he placed on her shoulder made her jump.

"Father," he said, his tone earnest. "She does not know our ways, she does not understand that our word is our bond and only seeks reassurance. She has done us a great kindness this day."

Odin narrowed his eye at her but his murderous look had dissipated at his son's words. "Eir will accompany you back and make the necessary arrangements."

"Thank you." She curtseyed, since that was how one showed respect to her royalty. With her luck, it was probably an insult here or something, so uttering another "Thank you," she turned to hurry from the room as quickly as she could.

"Thank you," that one was aimed at Thor.

"It was nothing," he assured her. "We are very grateful for your sacrifice."

She felt Loki's anger at his comments. On the one hand, she could understand it; his family thought him so awful, they were grateful to anyone who would agree to be his friend (she wasn't his friend but she was sure that's how she'd think in his shoes). On the other hand of course, he was a megalomaniacal, would-be tyrant, who had needlessly slaughtered New Yorkers, so why would anyone want to be his friend?

She had a feeling that it was that mixture of resentment and self-loathing that caused his aberrant behaviour, but she felt it would be wise to keep such thoughts to herself.

Their mounts were waiting outside the palace and Thor again helped her on. She felt a stab of jealousy as she thanked the warrior, but Loki was insane if he thought Thor was her type. First, and perhaps most importantly, he was head over heels in love with Jane Foster, and Lisa was not the sort to ever make a move on someone else's man.

Secondly, Thor always seemed to be too damn jovial and cheery. Lisa wasn't some depressive, emo type, who enjoyed listening to Billie Holiday's version of Gloomy Sunday and contemplating suicide. However, she also wasn't Miss Chipper, full of cheerleader-like pep either and if she was honest, perennially happy people annoyed her.

They waited until the healer joined them, then Thor and Eir took the lead, while Lisa's horse naturally fell into step beside Loki's, although she carefully kept her eyes averted from him, unwilling to start a conversation since she had no idea what to talk about.

Two guards followed the party at a distance and up ahead, Thor was busy chatting with the doctor.

"Are you always this nervous?" Loki asked suddenly.

"No. Are you always this angry?"

"I'm not-"

"Please, you're practically seething with rage," she scoffed.

"I have my reasons."

"I don't doubt it but from the sounds of things, this is your first day of freedom for a while, why not try to enjoy it."

"Being tied to a mortal and guarded by my brother, does not constitute freedom."

"You're a real 'glass half empty' kind of guy then." She sighed and dropped the subject.

"Better than the eternal optimist, thinking the glass is half full."

"I prefer to think of myself as a realist," she answered.

Loki smiled and she could feel his mirth through their new connection.

"What?" she asked.

"I was just thinking that it's better to be like me; while the optimist, the pessimist and the realist are arguing about the state of the glass, the opportunist sneaks in and finishes the drink."

She couldn't help but smile at that, especially since he seemed so pleased with himself. She wasn't foolish enough to think that he would be good company or that this would be an enjoyable experience, but maybe it might not be as bleak as she originally thought.

"Why did they pick you?" he asked.

"The only one fool enough to say yes, I suppose, and they made me an offer I couldn't refuse."

"Money?"

"Among other things."

"What things? What is this deal you struck?" Loki demanded.

"That's none of your business."

"A healer is returning with us. Are you sick?"

"No." She wished he would stop asking.

"I will find out, you know."

"Probably," she admitted. "But I granted you access to my emotions, not my soul."

Loki laughed. "Your soul? Please don't tell me you believe in a God."

"Says the man who came to earth claiming to _be_ a God."

"Fair point, but I am real, your God isn't."

"I know, that's why I'm an atheist."

"Then what is this 'soul' that I'm not allowed access to?"

"Are you always this inquisitive?"

"Always," he confirmed.

"This is going to be a long five years."

"It will go a lot quicker if you just answer my questions."

'_Fine. They approached me because I'm on the index,'_ she thought

Loki looked over at her. "Did you just-"

'_Telepathically project my thoughts into your mind, yeah.'_

"Is this a side effect of the bonding ritual? I wasn't aware the connection was so… powerful."

'_This is my power, nothing to do with that BDSM show we put on back there. This is why I'm on SHIELD's index.'_

'_And can you hear my thoughts?'_

'_Only when you intend me to, or I'm trying. Or when you're emotional; people's thoughts are louder then. I try not to listen in most of the time.'_

'_Why? You could learn so much.'_

"Have you ever eavesdropped on someone?" She went back to speaking since she felt odd using her gift, not only did she spend much of her time hiding it, the few people who did know felt very uncomfortable about her reading their minds.

"Who hasn't?" Loki answered.

"95 percent of what you overhear is drivel. Now imagine listening into the thoughts that people don't give voice to as well, that goes up to 99.99 percent. The fact is, most people aren't as interesting as they'd like to believe, and their thoughts are even less so."

He conceded her point with a nod of his head. "And this index?"

"You know SHIELD, right?"

"Yes," he said darkly.

"They keep a database of people with gifts, like me. Your brother approached them with this idea and after a lot of coaxing, they agreed to it."

"What kind of coaxing?"

"I don't know the specific terms, but Thor is working for them now, which probably has something to do with it."

"And how did they choose you?"

"They wanted to use one of their agents but Thor worried that a normal person's mind wouldn't be able to handle the bond, so they trolled their list for people with mental abilities that would make their minds more… plastic."

"And you just said yes?"

"Hell no. No offence, but you're worse than Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden rolled into one."

"Who?"

"A dictator and a terrorist."

"You flatter me."

Even with the emotional bond, she couldn't tell if he was joking or not.

"So what did they offer you?" He asked again.

"My family, my friends and my life before I met you are off limits, okay?"

"Why?"

"Because I don't trust you," she answered honestly. "I won't give you any information that you could use to find them, in case you try to hurt them."

"Why would I try to hurt them?"

"Why would you want to rule Earth?"

Loki smiled as they reached the bifrost, which was rather disconcerting. "We'll continue this later," he said, dismounting.

'_No, we won't.'_

Loki grinned in reply.


	2. Chapter 2

Norse proverb: The man that walks his own rode, walks alone.

**Chapter Two**

Loki was shocked by the events of today and more than that, he was being returned to earth with his powers virtually intact. He couldn't understand what kind of game they were playing. Did they think this human would weaken him, as Jane Foster had done for Thor?

The woman he was bonded to was unusual looking for a human. She was fairly tall, standing at close to six feet, but her skin and hair were very pale. Her hair might once have been a light blonde but despite her young age, white was overpowering the blonde now. Her complexion too was pale, almost sickly at times during the ritual but as they walked into Heimdall's Observatory, her grey pallor was fading. He could almost picture her with a little rosy tint in those cheeks and thought that she would probably look very fetching… for a human.

Her gift of telepathy was also interesting, few humans were special and of those that were, many were the product of science, such as the Hulk and Captain America, rather than being gifted by nature. Loki put a lot of merit in breeding and thought that superior genes were immeasurably more important that science experiments. People like this girl were the next stage in human evolution and one day, her race might be as evolved and powerful as Asgardians. Of course that day was centuries from now, possibly even a few millennia.

It was marginally better than being paired with a regular human, he supposed.

Heimdall was talking to her, hoping that she enjoyed her visit, while she professed sadness that she couldn't stay longer, and claimed that she hoped to return one day and see more.

That was a lie, of course, she felt a great deal of relief to be leaving this place. Truth be told, he was glad as well. Given their most likely similar feelings, he briefly wondered if he was feeling her emotions or his own.

"You might want to hold on again," Thor was saying to her, wrapping a large arm around her shoulders, as her arms enveloped his waist.

The gesture irked Loki somewhat but then again, he did not want her clinging to him during the journey.

"Until we meet again," Heimdal told the girl, activating the Bifrost and sending them all… well, somewhere in Midgard.

They landed in a large countryside valley, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Thor released the woman and she stepped back, although she looked as if she may topple over at any moment.

"This way, brother," Thor boomed, as if Loki was miles away, rather than standing beside him.

The party began to walk towards mountains in the mid-distance.

"Wait, where's Eir?" the girl cried, realising that she hadn't made the journey with them.

"She is travelling directly to your family to fulfil our side of the bargain," Thor explained.

"How do I know that, what if it isn't true?"

"Do not trouble yourself, Lady Lisa," Thor said with confidence. "Eir will let me know when it is done and then you can…" Thor shot a quick glance to Loki. "You can confirm it for yourself."

Loki was a little surprised to realise that he hadn't known her name until Thor said it and he was intrigued by the secret they were keeping.

Nevertheless, he was content to wait and bide his time.

"So, where are we?" he asked.

"This base is a SHIELD," Thor answered.

"He means that in those mountains, is an emergency SHIELD bunker," The woman, Lisa, explained.

"So I am to live in an underground dungeon once more," he scoffed. "Hardly any different from Asgard."

"This place used to be a farm," she continued. "SHIELD remodelled the old farmhouse for us to stay in."

"A farm house," he scoffed. "What, they didn't have any mud huts available?"

"But it is far preferable to an underground cell, no?" Thor reminded him.

"And what am I to do with my days, run a farm? I'd better brush up on my animal husbandry."

"What you do with your time is up to you, brother, within reason."

"Freedom is a great deal more restrictive that I remembered," he sneered.

"As long as you do not try to harm or injure anyone, you are free to do as you wish."

"That is good news, because I hear the weather in Florida is wonderful, perhaps I might visit there tomorrow."

"Loki!" Thor's voice held an edge of warning.

"I am only pointing out how limiting your version of freedom is."

"For me to allow you total freedom would require a great deal of trust in you, trust that you will have to earn,"

"Always so-"

"Oh, just shut up!" Lisa cried. "My god, you two fight like an old married couple."

Loki smiled at her words.

"My apologies," Thor answered. "It was not always this way. We were always competitive but our arguments used to be quickly done with."

'_For you maybe_,' Loki thought. _'I remember a braggart who claimed glory for everything, no matter how small his role.'_

'_I can hear you, you know.'_

Loki shot a glare at Lisa. _'I do not fear you, girl, so your knowledge of my thoughts doesn't trouble me.'_

The girl shrugged.

'_Can you read Thor's mind also?'_

'_All the time,'_ she answered. _'His thoughts are as loud as his voice.'_

'_What is he thinking?'_

'_He is hoping you don't screw this chance up by killing me or something. No matter how alienated you two are, he still loves his brother and doesn't want to watch you being executed.'_

'_The eternal optimist.'_ Loki gave a mental sigh, then wondered if she could hear that.

'_I can.'_

'_Just how powerful a telepath are you?" _

'_Level five.'_

'_Of how many levels?_

'_Five.'_

'_Then you're either exceptionally strong, or incredibly weak.'_

She didn't answer.

'_No matter, I already know the answer.'_

She continued to ignore him.

'_Five is the most powerful. I know because reading Asgardian minds takes a lot of effort, yet you telepathically converse with me as if we were old gossips taking tea.'_

Still no reaction.

'_How much can you hear? Hello? Lisa?_' He smiled wickedly._ "That ass is very pert. The thing's I'd like to do with it.'_

Her eyes cut to him, so he knew she'd been intentionally ignoring him. '_Pervert_.'

He laughed, causing her and Thor to look at him as if he was insane.

"Something amusing, Loki?"

"Only a private thought," he told his brother. "Nothing to trouble yourself with."

He stopped conversing with either of them, taking his new surroundings in and noting all the slight incongruences which piqued his interest.

As they approached the house, he stopped and looked straight up into the sky, his eye catching a glint that no human eye would resister.

"Brother, are you coming?" Thor asked from the top of the steps to the house.

"Of course."

The human made herself scarce, he didn't much care where she went, and he followed Thor inside.

Form the outside the house looked like a simple, if very large, farmhouse and Loki was prepared to hate it. Inside however, wasn't… too bad. There was less gold and marble than he was used to, but everything was clearly expensive. It reminded him a little of Stark's tower in New York.

Thor showed him around and he was pleased to learn that SHIELD had even employed staff to cater for them and clean up. There was a plush lounge with a very large television (he didn't understand the human's obsession with such screens) and a reasonably well stocked library. The kitchen he didn't care about, nor the dining room.

His bedroom was decorated in black and cream tones, with a plush carpet, a huge four poster bed, satin bed linen and a large walk in closet. The adjoining bathroom was also large but the bath was small by his standards. Still, it would suffice.

"Leave me," he told Thor.

"Yes, you settle in. I will call you when dinner is ready." Thor smiled. "Perhaps tomorrow you would like to spar outdoors?"

"My keepers will allow that?" Loki asked.

"I am your keeper, brother, and I say it is all right."

"Are you really blind to the surveillance equipment around the house and grounds, or are you simply ignoring it?"

"What equipment?"

"Cameras, listening devices, there's even a satellite trained on this house."

Thor frowned. "I suppose it makes sense that they would want to keep tabs on us-"

"On _us_?"

Thor ignored the interruption. "But devices in the home are a step too far. I will speak with Fury and ask that he remove them."

"Ask nicely? Like a child begging for scraps?" Loki scoffed. "You ask if you want to. I-" he raised his hand and with a flick of his fingers, the faint sound of small things breaking could be heard. "-simply deal with the problem."

He jumped onto the bed and lay back, his right arm under his head as he waited for the reaction.

Not two minutes later he hear the yells of men entering the house. Helicopters hovered outside and he wasn't even mildly surprised when his room was invaded by men dressed in black, with masks over their faces and aiming some very unusual looking weapons at him.

He felt a spike of fear from the human he was bonded to and sighed. Feeling a cowardly woman's emotions was going to become very tiresome, very quickly.

"Haven't you ever heard of knocking?" he asked, sounding bored.

Armed men continued to enter the room until there was hardly room to move.

"Lower your weapons, gentlemen," Thor implored them. "There is no need to worry."

"You agreed to us keeping an eye on the house."

Loki recognised that voice as the director of SHIELD, Nick Fury and sure enough, he strode into the room a moment later.

"Keeping an eye is hardly the same thing as putting a camera in my bathroom," Loki noted.

"Let me go! Get off me!" Loki sat up at the sound of that voice and saw that with a lot of pushing and shoving, Lisa was being dragged into the room.

Her hands were cuffed behind her and the men dragging her had their weapons trained on her. Suddenly her spike in fear didn't seem so cowardly.

"Release her!" Thor demanded. "She is human and no threat to anyone."

"Explain yourselves," Fury demanded of the soldiers.

"We found her alone in the bedroom, and she refused to lie down on the ground. She's dressed like one of them and she has an unusual accent, we thought it better to be safe than sorry, Sir." One of the agents holding her explained.

"My accent is English, you stupid tossers, not exactly exotic. Now let me go!"

"Release her," Fury ordered, and with more care than they had taken thus far, they did. She rubbed her wrists as soon as they were freed and Loki saw her flinch in pain.

"I was promised that I'd have the time and space to complete my thesis," she told Fury, still angry.

"And you will, this is just a little bump in the road."

"A bump in the road? Your goons just vaporised half my research papers with their stupid ray guns!"

The goons in question shuffled their feet and Loki smiled. Sensing his mirth, the mortal woman glared at him.

"We'll get you copies," Fury assured her.

"You'll get me copies of _my_ research questionnaires? Either you've been monitoring my supervisor and without my knowledge, or you're talking out of your arse."

"The former," Fury admitted.

Loki could see both Thor and the human bristle.

"How dare you-" the mortal blustered.

"Explain yourself!" Thor demanded.

"Calm down," Fury held his hands up to stop them. "I'll explain everything."

"First, I think you should order your men to stand down," Thor interrupted.

He was having so much fun that Loki had almost forgotten that a room full of SHIELD agents all had their weapons trained on him. Not that they frightened him. Human weapons might sting but they had nothing capable of killing him.

"Lower your weapons," Fury ordered.

The men did as ordered and most of then left the room. The helicopters still hovered outside though and Loki would bet that the troops weren't going far.

"Good," Thor nodded his approval. "Now perhaps you can explain why you have invaded our privacy and broken your promises, not only to us, but to this girl."

"I'm not a girl," the mortal argued.

"Thor, you must understand that having two Asgardians on earth is risky for us, especially when one of them has already tried to take over the planet."

"Then you should have refused. Instead we reached an agreement based on false promises."

"I understand why you might feel that way but-"

"Oh what a tangled web we weave," Loki interrupted them in a sing song voice, "when first we practice to deceive."

"You, keep out of this," Fury warned him.

"I would love to," Loki said with as little sincerity as he could. "But you see, you're having this argument in my bed chamber, which makes it rather difficult to ignore you."

"Come," Thor said. "We will discuss this elsewhere."

He and Fury left but Loki was surprised when the human didn't follow. He wondered if they had hurt her.

'_I am the dumbest person on the planet, hell, the entire universe,'_ she thought.

"No argument here."

She looked up, surprised. "You heard that?"

Loki cocked his head to the side. "You didn't mean me to?"

"No. No one usually hears my thoughts unless I want them to." She looked worried. "You didn't use your magic, did you?"

"No. Human thoughts are of no interest to me."

"You old charmer, you."

"What about my thoughts?" he asked, brushing her sarcasm aside. Her contempt bothered him little. Her being able to overhear his thoughts however, that was worrying.

She just looked at him.

"Well?"

"Only when I try."

He wasn't sure he believed her. "It doesn't do to try and deceive to the God of Lies."

"It's a good thing I'm an atheist then," she snapped, then looked away and let out a long sigh. "Do I gather there were bugs in the house?"

"Bugs? Insects?" he asked.

"No," she smiled slightly and while he didn't appreciate the idea that she was laughing at him, her improvement in mood travelled through their link and he couldn't chastise her. Besides, if he did insult her, thanks to their bond he would be forced to feel the sting of rejection for the rest of the day.

"Bug a slang term we use for spying devices," she explained.

"Then yes, the house was covered in… bugs. The grounds still are."

"Where were they?"

"Everywhere."

She sighed.

"What is it that you want to know?" he asked.

"I took a shower here last night… were there camera's watching me? In the bathrooms, I mean?"

"Yes."

She shivered. "But they're all gone now, right?"

"From the interior, yes."

"Thank you."

"I didn't do it for you." He said callously. How could she think that he had done anything for her?

"I know, but you still did me a kindness, even inadvertently."

She turned to leave the room, cradling her wrists.

"Did they hurt you?" he found himself asking, against his will.

"Just bruises, I think," she assured him, pausing only briefly to answer.

"What's a thesis?" he asked as she reached the door.

She turned back. "You can quote Walter Scott but you don't know what a thesis is?"

"Have you ever heard the proverb '_Who marries too hastily can regret it too constantly and wistfully_'?"

"Um, no, but I've heard of '_Marry in haste, repent at leisure_', which sounds like the same thing."

"It's an old Norse proverb. You know of it, or a version of it at least, does that mean you understand the workings of our society?"

She conceded the point with a nod. "A thesis is a research project that you do to gain a doctoral degree, the highest level of education. I figured if I was going to be stuck here, I might as well spend my time on something constructive."

"And what is the subject of your thesis?"

"Personality and disinhibitory psychopathology. Why?"

"Just… curious." In truth, her words meant little to him. He could speak English fluently but he wasn't aware of many aspects of their modern society.

She left and needing a distraction, Loki projected a version of himself downstairs, where he could listen in on his brother talking with Fury.

* * *

"I am grateful to you for allowing this experiment to happen and for accepting Loki back on Midgard but if you are not honest with me, this will never work."

"Thor, I understand your reservations and I'm sorry for the duplicity, but you have to see it from our point of view. Loki is a war criminal, we can't just let him run around freely."

"He is not running around freely, I am his guardian and he is tied to a human."

"And I respect that from your point of view, he poses no risk but from our point of view, precautions must be taken."

"Precautions such as using Asgardian handcuffs on a human?" Thor asked. "I gave you those expressly for use on Loki, should it be necessary. Given how much weaker humans are, you are lucky they didn't break her wrists."

Fury's mouth opened a fraction, the only sign he gave of the shock he felt.

"And you wonder why I am so reticent to share our technologies with you? Loki would never have come to this planet had you not tried to turn the tesseract into a weapon, and now you have proven again that you cannot be trusted with advanced technology."

"Now hold on, are you saying we're to blame for the attack on New York? As I recall, it was your brother's army slaughtering people left and right,"

"That was not his army, he made a bargain to retrieve the tesseract in return for ruling earth. Had you left the tesseract alone, no one would have known it was here to strike any bargains."

"It was your visit here, where your machine levelled a town in New Mexico, which made us search for stronger weapons."

"Is that your excuse for the atomic bombs so many of you house? Humans cannot be trusted with powerful weapons, you have proved that time and again, with no outside interference to blame. Now you use our technology on one of your own. You do not heed our warnings and one day, it will cost you dearly."

Thor was clearly angry and Loki smiled.

"Is that a threat?"

"No, a prediction. Asgard is not the only realm out there and one day, you might attract the attentions of a foe I am unable to defeat."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

Loki could almost picture Thor shaking his head in contempt. Ever since his banishment to earth, he thought that he knew so much. He had been far more fun when he was a bloodthirsty warrior.

"As you wish but I must demand total honesty from this point on, or the deal is off."

That piqued Loki's interest, apparently the human girl wasn't the only one to be offered a deal.

"The handcuffs should never have been used on the girl," Fury agreed. "But that was a mistake, not a conscious decision."

Fury apologising? Wonders would never cease.

"She will need medical treatment," Thor said.

"And I'll send a medic up to see that she gets it. Would you like to see Jane?"

"No. If she is brought here she might be subject to your mistakes, and I cannot allow that."

"Then why don't you come and see her?"

"Because I don't trust you with Loki. In a few days, if there are no more secrets and lies, she can come up and stay here, if she so desires."

Up? She must be in the bunker, the same one the soldiers had obviously emerged from.

"She does," Fury assured him. "She's worried about you."

"I'm worried about her. The human girl will also need to contact her loved ones soon."

"I'll have an internet connected laptop sent up. We're setting up a webcam link to the hospital as we speak."

"Thank you."

"This was just a teething problem, Thor. Needless to say, my agents are rather uncomfortable with Loki's return but in a while, if nothing happens, everyone will relax."

"I will take care of Loki, your men need not worry."

Loki couldn't help but wonder what Fury's plan here was. Not for a second did he believe the man's hollow words. Fury had an agenda, and Loki was going to find out exactly what it was.

* * *

Lisa was rearranging her bedroom, trying to clean up the mess the agent's weapon had made of the desk. There was no way the ash, the remnants of her research questionnaires that they had stamped into the cream carpet, was coming out though.

She supposed she should feel lucky that they didn't shoot her, or she would likely have fared no better than her papers. She had always assumed that any danger she was in during this would come from Loki, but now she was rethinking that.

SHIELD didn't give a crap about her. And okay, she was just one of seven billion people on this planet, so why should they care, except that they had come to her, they had brokered the deal with Asgard to secure her cooperation, they should care if she lived or died because they got her into this which meant they had a duty of care!

She couldn't stop tears of frustration from blurring her vision.

She was in way over her head. She felt so lost… so alone.

Normally she'd call up her Dad and they'd talk it out and she'd feel better, but he had enough on his plate right now and for the next five years, she had to keep her distance, for their sake more than anything. They would never know that she was doing this to help her sister, in fact, they couldn't know anything about her miraculous recovery. They would be told it was a new, experimental treatment, not that an Asgardian healer had come down to take her cancer away, so that Lisa would agree to be tied to a megalomaniacal alien as part of his rehabilitation.

As far as they knew, she was the selfish older sister who, unable to deal with her sisters impending death, had run away.

It didn't really matter, she didn't want glory for doing this, but she also didn't want to be thought ill of. The idea that her family would be disappointed in her hurt, because she valued their opinions above all others.

And to top it all off, her wrists were killing her. She was dressed in this stupid Asgardian dress with some armoured breast plate that she couldn't undo before her wrists were hurt, that had been what she was been attempting to do when she was so rudely interrupted. Now with her wrists so painful, she stood no chance of getting the damn thing off. She had no idea what those handcuff's had done, other than cutting the circulation to her hands off for a few minutes, but they had bloody well hurt and now her wrists were swelling to the size of grapefruits.

Suddenly her bedroom door opened with a crash, rebounding off the wall and making her jump.

"Oh, would you just _stop_ with the self-pity!" Loki looked at her with contempt and she supposed, collapsed in a heap on the floor, with tears streaming down her face and wrists swollen to twice their normal size, she probably looked deserving of contempt. She wasn't usually one to wallow in self-pity.

'_Speak of the devil and he shall appear_,' she thought, '_My very own megalomaniacal alien. Satan in green leather._'

"I'm a god, not a devil, but you're almost right."

"Stop that!" she cried, swiping at her eyes. _'Was this how her friends felt when she read their minds by mistake?'_

"Probably,"

"Stop it!"

"I'm not doing anything," he said, his teeth almost gritted in anger. "Now stop feeling sorry for yourself. It's distracting."

"I can't just stop, all right? Emotions, even the horrible ones, can't just be switched off."

"Of course they can, with a little effort and practice."

"Well humans can't. Even sociopaths feel their own suffering," she argued.

He huffed and rolled his eyes then after a moment's hesitation, he knelt before her.

"Give me your wrists," he ordered, holding his hand out, palm up.

"No." She crossed them over her chest.

"I won't harm you."

"You're pissed enough to." She could feel his impatience through their bond.

"They used restraints designed for me on you, your bones are likely broken or chipped, I can heal them." It seemed to take a lot of restraint for him to explain it calmly.

"How do I know you won't turn me into a frog or something?" she asked.

"Because you look more like a lapdog than an amphibian."

She frowned. "Was that a joke?"

"An attempt, at least." Finally a small smile broke through his formal façade. "Look into my thoughts, see for yourself that I mean you no harm."

She did and seemingly with his permission, she saw so much more. She couldn't make sense of much of it, it was like seeing a hundred TV screens at once, only registering a glimpse of each and not enough to put the story together. She sensed anger and resentments, caught a glimpse of secrets, ones so awful he didn't want to admit them to himself most of the time.

But she sensed no ill will towards her. Well, not much. And her wrist were beginning to throb quite painfully.

She held her hands out towards him and he lightly grabbed her wrists. His hands were cool to the touch and she must have flinched.

"My hands are always cold." She wondered if he meant to tag a 'sorry' onto that sentence but forgot.

"Warm heart," she said automatically.

"I'm sorry?"

"It's something my mum used to say a lot, 'cold hands, warm heart'. I have no idea where it comes from."

He frowned coldly at her and turned his unhappy gaze to her wrists.

"The cool feels nice, actually," she tried to appease him, knowing that if this was going to be bearable, they had to make an effort to get along.

After a moment, she felt the cold seeping into her wrists and felt panic overtake her, what if this was a trick and he was going to freeze her or something? People who drowned in frozen lakes could sometimes be revived after death, as the cold preserved them but if he froze her body, the water would expand and form ice crystals, her cell walls would burst from the increased pressure, and there was no coming back from that.

"Good to know," he told her. "But I don't plan on freezing anybody."

"I'm sorry." She did feel apologetic for thinking bad thoughts when he was trying to help her.

"You can't help what you think… mostly." He actually seemed appeased because she was wondering if he was going to kill her. Talk about enjoying negative attention.

"There," he said, removing his hands. "All better."

To her surprise, the swelling was already reduced. She clenched her fists, then flexed her wrists. A wave of relief flooded through her when she felt no pain since given everything else she had to deal with, this had just seemed one problem too many, and she was grateful to him for fixing it.

"Thank you."

He glared at her. "I didn't do it for you, I did it so that I wouldn't have to feel your morbid self-pity all evening."

"Of course," she said. "Because you already have far too much self-pity of your own to deal with."

He narrowed his eyes at her.

"Please leave," she said.

"Gladly." In one fluid motion he was on his feet and turning to flee from her room.

"Wait, Loki." She realised that she needed his help with one more thing.

He turned back, not looking the slightest bit impressed. He raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Do you know how to get this off?" She pointed at the breastplate and with a flick of his wrist, he undid whatever catch was holding it together and left.

"Thanks," she called after him. Oh well, she might be living with a self-absorbed manic-depressive and an overgrown dumb jock, but at least she could change into her own clothes now, and her wrists didn't hurt any more.

She heard a bark of laughter and felt Loki's mirth, obviously appreciating her evaluation of his brother's character.

She couldn't wait until Jane got here, hopefully Darcy and maybe even Erik would stop by regularly too, although Erik was the least likely, given his history with Loki. She enjoyed their company and honestly, it was a little disconcerting being the only human among two demi-gods and she needed them to help even up the numbers.


	3. Chapter 3

AN: Sorry for the delay, I had a new book out and the run up to publication is always busy. I should have more time to devote to this now though, so updates should come regularly. Thanks to everyone who took the time to comment, it means a lot to me.

* * *

Norse Proverb: At every doorway, ere one enters, one should spy round.

**Chapter Three**

As luck would have it, Jane insisted on accompanying the medic who came to look at her wrists. She didn't tell him that Loki had healed her, she wasn't that happy with SHIELD at the moment, and she feigned pain as he manipulated her wrists.

"You seem to be incredibly lucky," he said. "I just saw a pair of those cuffs being tested and felt for sure that they must have done some real damage."

"I have a high pain threshold."

'_Liar.'_

'_Oh my god, Loki, stop listening into my mind!'_

"Are you all right?" the doctor sounded concerned.

"I'm fine. It's just a bit painful that's all."

"Of course." He rummaged in his kit and brought out a support bandage, which he put on for her, then bid her farewell.

'_You're missing quite the interesting argument down here,'_ Loki told her.

Despite her anger at his constant intrusions into her mind, she could use the distraction.

She didn't need to ask where he was as through their connection, she could sense his direction in relation to her, like anyone else could recognise which direction a sound emanates from, and she found him in the kitchen, calmly sitting at the table while Jane and Thor argued in the living room next door.

"How long have they been at it?" she asked Loki, putting the kettle on to make tea.

"Since the medic arrived. He's already gone by the way."

"Good."

She could feel that he liked the fact that she clearly had no love for SHIELD.

"Should we intervene?" she asked.

"Of course not, who else will entertain us?"

Lisa didn't much like his answer but she didn't argue. Just at that moment however, the door opened and Jane entered the kitchen. Thor followed her but simply watched the scenario unfold, looking grumpy as hell. Loki disappeared, as though he had never been there.

Jane immediately noticed the support bandages on Lisa's arms.

"Oh my god, are you okay?" she crossed the kitchen with remarkable speed for one so small, and enveloped Lisa in a hug.

"I'm okay now," she answered. "Stupid Asgardian technology."

"I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault," Lisa assured her.

Jane pulled away and looked into her eyes. "Did everything go okay?"

"No problems… not on Asgard, at least."

"You can tell me all about it later," Jane assured her.

"There will be no 'later', Jane, not until I'm sure I can trust SHIELD," Thor interrupted.

"If you don't trust them, then I'm safer up here with you, than in their super-secret bunker, right?"

"I suppose."

"Good, because Darcy's packing my bags as we speak."

"Is she staying too?" Lisa asked.

"She is."

"I thought it might be too dangerous for her up here."

Darcy liked to complain a lot and since they had met, all Darcy had done was tell Lisa how dangerous and deadly Loki was, how messed up their friend Erik was because of him, and how you wouldn't catch her dead sharing a house with the man.

Jane smiled. "Yeah. You'll learn not to believe most of what Darcy says plus, she'll find plenty to complain about here. It'll be like Christmas."

Lisa wondered if that was true, or if on some level, the girl wanted to support her and Jane. Darcy had her faults but she seemed to be a pretty good friend and for all their complaining about her, both Jane and Erik had a lot of affection for her. Even Thor tolerated her inane rambling with equanimity.

She wondered how Loki would fair with her.

'_We will soon find out.'_

She turned to see Loki enter the kitchen.

"Loki." Thor said by way of greeting, but his tone held a warning and just in case it wasn't clear, he stepped up behind Jane and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Jane, it's good to see you again," Loki said with insincerity and a wicked smile.

'_Couldn't you be a bit more subtle with the evil? Seriously, you're starting to resemble a pantomime villain.'_

His eyes became flinty for a fraction of a second but he didn't look over to her. She had a feeling she was going to pay for that remark later however.

'_You can count on it_,' he assured her.

'_Great_.'

"Look," Jane said as she took a step away from Thor. "I don't like you and I really don't trust you but… You did save my life, and Thor's life, so I guess what I'm saying is that I'll try to make an effort to get along with you, if you do too."

Loki's smile widened. "I have no quarrel with you, Jane Foster."

"Good, that's… good."

'_Stop trying to unnerve her_,' Lisa chided.

'_Stop telling me what to do.'_

'_Behave like a decent human being and I won't have to._'

He turned away from Jane and glared at her. '_I am _not_ a human being, you _pathetic_ creature. Your opinions of my conduct mean _nothing_ to me._'

The devil made her do it. '_Methinks the lady doth protest too much_.'

Suddenly she was choking, unable to draw breath because something blocked her throat, and coughing with what little air was in her lungs to try and clear her airways. Jane rushed to her side.

"Oh my god." Jane began to hit her on the back but she knew there was nothing in her throat to be dislodged, this was Loki's doing. She maintained eye contact with him and had seen the small smirk he gave when she began to choke and felt his pleasure. He loved the feeling of power these acts gave him, she could feel it.

Jane was behind her now, trying the Heimlich manoeuvre and she was unable to keep glaring at Loki besides, she didn't mind because she didn't want her last moments to be filled with the vision of his hateful face.

Stars began to swim in front of her eyes and she realised that there was a very good chance she might die. If her sister lived, that was okay with her but the thought of dying without seeing them, without telling them how much she loved them…

Her vision began to darken at the edges and she was unable to hold herself up any more. Since Jane wasn't strong enough to hold her, she was on the ground. Thor was hovering around, wondering how he could help, Jane knelt behind her, and put her head on her legs.

She had stopped coughing now; perhaps it annoyed Loki or something, so he had stopped her natural reflex. Not that she was sorry, there was nothing to dislodge so the coughing was just distracting. She was able to catch Loki's eye again and he didn't look happy. In fact, he looked raging, as if he was having to stop himself from killing her with his bare hands. She didn't care if he looked as crazy as Charles Manson, she couldn't speak so he was her only hope.

'_Tell my family I love them.'_

His eyes appeared to glow red but given her condition, it she might just be imagining it.

Suddenly, with a wave of his fingers, she was free. She gulped in air, almost panting like a dog. '_Wow, that's a nice image_,' she thought.

"Lady Lisa, are you all right?" Thor knelt down beside her.

She nodded, enjoying her restored ability to breathe too much too much to try and talk.

"Loki, was this your doing?" Thor demanded, grabbing Loki by the throat and pinning him against the wall, hard enough to chip the plaster off.

'_Of course, blame Loki,_' she heard his thoughts. '_Anything that goes wrong has to be Loki's fault_.'

Although this _was_ his fault Lisa knew that feeling. As the older sister, she was always to blame. Always.

"It's not him," she croaked. "I just swallowed some saliva the wrong way."

"You're sure?" Thor looked to her and she nodded so after another moment, he released Loki. "My apologies."

Loki just nodded, seeming slightly nonplussed.

Lisa tried to get up with Jane's help but Thor intervened, grabbing a hold of the back of her shirt and yanking her off the ground, then placing her back down. She felt like a cat, being picked up by the scruff of its neck.

"Careful," Loki, the man who had just tried to kill her, chided his brother.

"My apologies, Lady Lisa. Are you all right?"

She nodded and the whistle on the kettle began to sing, which she took as her cue to walk away from… whatever that was.

"Tea?" she asked.

No one said yes. When Jane and Thor moved into the next room, Loki stepped closer to her.

She should probably be frightened but she had a feeling that she had depleted her adrenalin reserves, she simply wasn't capable of being frightened at the moment.

'_Why didn't you let Thor kill me?'_ Loki asked.

She looked up, surprised by his question and unable to answer him. Aside from a vague sense of empathy for him, she couldn't rationalise her actions.

'_Why did you change your mind about killing me?_' she asked.

Loki just glared, then turned on his heel and left the room. Lisa made her tea and sat at the kitchen table to sip it.

Wasn't she supposed to be immune to his magic? She hadn't given it much thought when he healed her wrists, almost having forgotten that from her time in Asgard (had that only been this morning?) but now she remembered that she was supposed to be protected from his magic.

Was that why he stopped choking her? It would explain why he had looked so enraged and determined, trying to overcome the block on his magic. If so, that was a shitty form of immunity, like giving someone the polio virus to make them immune from it, rather than the harmless vaccine.

* * *

It seemed that killing her was out of the question, Loki fumed. Not only did he have to suffer through feeling her emotions as she died, which was most unpleasant for a man used to refusing emotions, but he felt as if was killing himself. His own air supply had been restricted the moment he had cut hers off and while he could survive far longer than she (and without the need to have some kind of coughing seizure) he seemed to be fading as fast as she was and he had a terrible intuition that the moment she died, he would too.

He had tried to fight through it, to end this torture of being tied to her but the weaker she became, the more certain he became that he would share her fate.

It seemed that he couldn't harm her without harming himself.

However, he had faced no problems when he healed her.

He wondered if all of his actions would rebound on him in the same way, or if it was just Lisa who was affected. To cast such a spell on one human would be relatively easy but to constrain his powers with such a spell would be beyond any sorcerer. They must have hexed Lisa, he decided, but if an opportunity arose, he would try someone else, just to test the theory.

* * *

The next few days passed incredibly slowly. Loki kept to his room, refusing to interact more than absolutely necessary with anyone in the house and conjuring his meals in his room.

He only heard Lisa's thoughts occasionally, but her emotions were his constant companion. She seemed to be an oddly emotional woman and in just a week, she had experenced the full spectrum of feelings, from happy to sad, and from playful to angry. On two occasions, he had even felt both happiness and sadness from her in the same instant. He wondered what had caused such a mix but he refused to ask.

He quickly discovered that the best way to ignore her and her annoying emotional swings, was to read. He had plucked over a dozen books from the library and taken them back to his room. He had read books from many lands and in many languages, so English presented him with no problems at all.

There were some unusual books among the collection, which appeared to be fiction books but were of a low calibre. He decided to try one, simply because he had nothing better to do and nothing to lose and he soon found himself absorbed in a tale of secrets and intrigue, heroes that turned out to be villains and everymen who when tested, found themselves capable of heroism.

He often found himself siding with the villains, both in fiction and in true stories, but in some of these popular fiction books, he sometimes found it hard to tell the difference. Some of the heroes were as bad as the villains, just fighting on an opposing side. He enjoyed those books most of all.

He found a series of fantasy books which seemed to resemble Norse mythology, so reminded him of Asgard and some of the stories he had grown up hearing. He stopped reading those. The only place that welcomed him in Asgard now, was his father's dungeons, and he had no desire to return there.

On his sixth day of captivity, Thor entered and tried harder than ever to coax Loki into a sparring match and only left when Loki, literally, threw him out of the room, taking the door with him. Loki's magic quickly fixed it however, and he returned to the sofa in his room and picked up the book he had been reading.

* * *

Since SHIELD had provided her with another copy of her questionnaires Lisa had been keeping busy, although she was still angry about both the ruination of her originals, and the fact that they had been keeping close enough tabs on her before this started to have access to her research.

She had talked with her family briefly, just long enough to tell them she loved them and that she didn't know when she'd be home. She had been shown video however, of Sarah recovering from her cancer, and discussing the spontaneous remission with her father, so she knew it was real. Thor also confirmed that Eir had completed the healing ritual, so she didn't have to rely on only SHIELD's word.

Her family thought she was travelling the world, avoiding her sister's illness and backpacking in third-world countries with few, if any, phones. SHIELD were also sending postcards in her name from said countries, just to back the deception up. They didn't want any more civilians than absolutely necessary involved in this plan, and given Loki's mercurial temperament, Lisa agreed.

Her sister had been told that she would be a test subject for a new cancer treatment, she was stage four and dying anyway, so what did she have to lose by agreeing? Now she was cured, she would be going home today, and Lisa would no longer be able to view SHIELD's covert video footage of her family. From this point on, she would only have memories and photographs. She might be able to place a call very occasionally but given that she couldn't acquiesce to their demands to return, nor could she adequately explain why not, her calls could only be brief and ended by a SHIELD operative who listened in, when questions became too hard.

Afterwards she would be upset, and for such little time talking with them, it wasn't worth the heartache that her calls would cause (to her or to them).

At the end of this little experiment, Lisa had no idea how she would explain where she had been for the past five years but equally, she was certain that SHIELD would coach her adequately on her cover story.

If her sister, Sarah, ever enquired into the results of the study she participated in, wondering why this cure for leukaemia wasn't being made available to many more people, she would be told that her reaction was a freak and only one other patient had a positive result. The others either had no better result than the control group, or a slightly worse outcome.

With any luck, Sarah would thank her lucky stars and never question it too much.

The thought of her sister returning to their childhood home from hospital today though, made her restless. She couldn't keep her mind on her work so she took a long walk around the house with Darcy, then she baked cookies, a chocolate cake and cupcakes; although their meals were delivered by SHIELD, she enjoyed baking and found it a stress reliever.

She discovered that Thor loved her baking and singlehandedly ate most of what she prepared. She didn't mind, especially since she has managed to hide a little of the chocolate cake from him to enjoy later; it was her favourite.

Now though, everyone had gone to bed and unable to sleep, she was trying to get some work done. She was as distracted as ever though, and finally gave up, heading downstairs to the massive television in the living room. She hadn't really explored what channels they had here since she didn't like American TV, finding the multiple adverts annoying. Now though, she surfed the TV Guide, looking for some mindless entertainment that would keep her occupied, while requiring little thought on her part. She found Aliens had just started and needing comfort, she ran back to her room, changed into her night shirt and grabbed her duvet, to snuggle under while she watched.

She dumped the duvet in the living room and dashed into the kitchen, grabbing Malibu, pineapple juice, a glass, the plate with two slices of cake under cling film, or saran wrap as they called it here, and a fork. It was rather awkward to carry everything but she managed somehow.

By the time she settled herself on the sofa, she was pleased to see that she hadn't missed much, Ripley and the crew had just awoken from their cryogenic sleeping pods when she returned, and she covered herself with the duvet and poured herself a drink, wishing she'd thought to get some ice. Maybe in the next commercial break.

* * *

Loki was distracted by the footsteps that ran around the house, wondering what was going on. He suspected it was Lisa as the others seemed to have retired but although he wondered what she was doing, dashing around the house, he tried his best to ignore her.

He returned his attentions to his book for a while, until she began to feel anxious, which made him anxious too. Her anxiety grew steadily until he felt compelled to investigate. Without making a sound, he made his way downstairs and to the living room, where she was watching that television device.

He looked around the doorway but although the only light came from the screen she watched, she seemed to be in no harm. Her emotions had stabilised a little but he noticed that every time the masculine woman on the television crashed the odd looking vehicle she was driving, Lisa's adrenalin spiked a little.

"Whatever are you doing?" he asked, stepping into the room.

Her fear really spiked as he spoke and he took a perverse thrill in making her jump. The image of her kneeling on the couch, a plastic remote control raised in defence, was also rather amusing.

"Do not sneak up on someone watching a horror film!"

"What is, a horror film?"

"It's like a thriller that scares you and makes you jump, but it's about supernatural or science fiction things." She turned back to the screen.

His interest piqued, he stepped further into the room and stood behind the sofa as he watched the action on screen. The play was rather… captivating, he had to admit, even if he didn't completely understand what was happening.

"Either go back to your room or sit down and watch," Lisa said suddenly. "Having you behind me makes me feel like you're waiting to pounce."

"Perhaps I am," he suggested, taking her up on her offer to sit. Not that he needed an invitation.

The film title flashed up then and it switched to commercials.

"Aliens?" he asked.

"Yup. Want a drink?" she asked, waving her glass at him.

"What is that?"

"Coconut rum and pineapple juice. It's lovely."

She offered him her glass and he took a sip. It was about as strong as the ale served in Asgard but much more pleasant.

"Hmm."

"Want some?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Then go get a glass," she said swiping her glass back before he thought to block her. "And some ice."

"I'm not a servant," Loki reminded her.

"Nor am I, if you want some of this, get your own glass."

He held his hand out and a glass materialised.

"Cheater," she said, in what sounded like a teasing tone. "And the ice?"

"I assume you want cubed?"

"Please."

With the flick of his wrist, an ice bucket appeared on the coffee table before them.

She drained the last of her glass then pushed the quilt she sat under off and put some cubes in her glass, then held her hand out for his. The measures she poured were rather large but he didn't particularly mind, his constitution was far stronger than the humans.

The film had resumed but clearly, it wasn't in an action scene.

"That's Ripley," she explained. "We love her."

"I wouldn't be too confident of that assertion, my half of that 'we' hasn't seen this teleplay before and cannot pass judgement yet."

"You'll love her too," she assured him.

She topped up the glasses with pineapple juice, then handed him his glass back to him.

"Cheers." She held her glass aloft.

"Pardon?"

"Cheers. It's a toast, wishing your drinking companions good cheer. You're supposed to repeat it and clink glasses."

"Why?"

She lowered her glass, clearly no longer expecting his to do as she had said.

"Well the toast is just an old tradition, usually something done in celebration. The clinking of glasses supposedly comes from times when people might expect their drink to be poisoned and by hitting the vessels together, drink from both tankards would slosh into the other, so if one had poisoned the other's drink, he'd get poisoned too. It's probably an urban legend but that's the story."

"I didn't know humans were so blood thirsty."

"You really don't know much of human history, do you?"

"Not especially. Why?"

"Check out the Spanish Inquisition, World War Two, specifically concentration camps, and Chairman Mao."

"Why?"

"Because then you'll learn that being megalomaniacal despot isn't unique to you. Who knows, maybe if you realise that humans are capable of great evil too, you'll think such behaviour as beneath you as we are."

She turned her attention back to the television and flicked her quilt back over her legs. They sat in silence for a while, and he found himself quite enjoying the film she was watching.

When the next ad break came on, she topped up their drinks, then got the plate of cake from the side table. His interest was piqued but he didn't want to ask for any.

"So, is that what you look like when you don't have all that funky leather on?" she asked.

"You mean my armour? Yes." He was wearing green still, and a leather vest, but it had none of the protective elements or embellishments that his normal clothes did.

"So that's what passes for casual on Asgard?"

"Among royalty." He didn't much like her teasing tone. "It's better than a giant Miley T-Shirt. Who is Miley?"

"It was a joke present, my sister bought it for me to sleep in," she answered.

"You didn't answer my question."

"Miley Cyrus is a singer," she answered.

"And you are a follower of this… person? You must be, to adorn your body with her image."

"It's a gag gift, and sentimental attachment overrides the shame factor."

He would question that logic but not knowing the parties involved, he kept quiet.

She smiled.

"What is so amusing?" he demanded.

"You."

"Oh, really? Why, exactly?"

"Because you want some of this cake and are too proud to ask if you can share it."

"I do not want your cake. I merely wondered how one person can eat so much."

She gave a bark of laughter. "Tell that to your brother. I had to squirrel this away so he wouldn't devour it."

"Yes, his appetite _is_ legendary," Loki admitted.

"Would you like some cake, Loki?"

"I'm fine."

"Well, if you change your mind…"

She ate only one slice, putting the rest on the coffee table, to taunt him no doubt. He would not rise to the bait. Still, for Thor to eat so much of it, it must be quite good. He may be a glutton but he had taste.

The movie resumed.

"So you enjoy movies like this?" Loki asked during a quiet scene.

"I love horror movies."

"What's the fascination?"

"I don't know. I've always been prone to insomnia and horror movies can hold your interest without requiring too much attention to detail."

"Rather a poor choice to watch before bed though, isn't it?"

"Oh no. Thrillers, with people hurting people, those would give me nightmare. Horror movies though," she shrugged, "the villains aren't real, so you don't have to worry about them coming into your bedroom in the middle of the night and killing you."

"Ah, but aliens are no longer fantasy."

"True," she admitted with a smile. "But while you are caustic, I doubt even you bleed acid."

He actually smiled.

A while later, he realised that she had fallen asleep, and he took the opportunity to finish her cake as he watched the movie. This was certainly better than the other glimpses he had seen of television, especially the programs that he had seen Darcy watching since she arrived.

The cake wasn't awful either and he made a note to ask Thor to order more from whoever made their food.

He too grew drowsy soon but because he wanted to see the end of the movie, he stayed where he was and ended up falling asleep beside her.

* * *

Loki's dreams were unusual that night. He saw human parents, witnessed an act of barbarity, felt a similar act upon himself. The knife that sliced into him was not overly large but then, he wasn't overly large. He felt tiny, in fact. Then he dreamed that he had partially healed himself, which was odd, to say the least.

Next he saw new faces and loved ones. Hugs, kisses, tears gently brushed away, fevered brows soothed, fantastical stories being told to him.

He liked those dreams. He saw himself trip and skin his knee, felt his tears overwhelm him and fall from his eyes, then hands enveloping him in warmth and comfort. He saw his knee being cleaned and the woman administering to him singing to take his mind of the sting of the antiseptic. Then she placed a covering over the wound and looked up, smiling.

"_There, all done."_ She kissed his forehead.

He awoke in a cold sweat, the word "Mother," on his lips.

He tried not to think of Frigga often, it hurt too much. His last words to her had not been ones designed to wound, the God of Lies had simply told the truth for once, but it was a truth that could hurt her, and he had known that.

She was the only person in the universe who loved him, even after everything he had done, and he had rejected her love.

The human was still asleep beside him and he quietly left the room, just in case his emotions got the better of him.

* * *

That was the first night she dreamed of his nightmares. She saw herself being abandoned, learning that her life had been a lie, killing her father, being flung into the abyss. She dreamed of living- no surviving in dark, dank places, among evil people, where evil deeds were necessity and all the while, desperately trying to claw her way back to something she knew.

She awoke in the morning covered in a sheen of perspiration but with only vague memories of her dreams. The emotions she could recall with perfect clarity however, betrayal, hatred at the injustice of it all, fear, pain, suffering…

Loki was no longer beside her and she was glad, she didn't want him to think she had nightmare after watching horror films, hadn't she explained last night that they didn't disturb her dreams?

She shuddered and tried not to think about any of it, heading through to the kitchen to make herself some coffee.


	4. Chapter 4

Norse proverb: The wolf and the dog do not play together.

**Chapter Four**

Loki's attempts to distract himself from his thoughts of his mother failed spectacularly and at midday, he ventured out of his room to find Thor, who was listening to Jane explain about an upcoming supernova. Of course, upcoming was a relative term, the star would explode thousands of years after her death, but Loki and Thor would still be around to see it.

Thor however, appeared board. It wasn't that his brother was dumb, he wasn't, he just wasn't interested in academia. As children Loki had listened intently to their teachers, while Thor played pranks, cracked jokes and did his best to escape the class room.

That, combined with an overly sentimental and trusting nature, made him dumb but then again, next to Loki, most people _were_ dumb.

As if to prove Loki's points, Thor looked up with relief as Loki entered, and gave his traitorous brother a wide smile.

"Loki, it is good to see you."

"Do you still want to spar?" Loki asked, and Thor's grin widened. Without any warriors around to train with, Thor was probably going a little stir crazy.

"I was beginning to think that you would never ask."

"Do you always have to yell?" Loki asked with a resigned sigh.

Thor ignored him. "Jane, would you like to come and watch?"

"We would," Darcy said, entering the dining room and dragging Lisa by the wrist.

"What's this 'we' business?" Lisa argued, trying to tug her wrist free of Darcy's grip.

"Oh come on, Gods are about to fight and you're telling me you aren't the slightest bit curious?"

Loki allowed himself a small moment of triumph as Lisa wavered. Despite her wariness, she _did_ want to watch him fight. It might only be because she wanted to watch him get pounded but he would show them; fighting was about far more than brute force.

"We could make a wager," Darcy tried to tempt her. "You put ten dollars on Thor, I'll put ten dollars on Loki."

Darcy wanted to bet on him? He doubted it, she was probably trying to lure Lisa with the prospect of a sure bet.

"Okay," Lisa surprised him by agreeing. "But make it 50, and I back Loki."

Now that did surprise him.

Darcy happily agreed, clearly thinking that Thor would win and she would be up 50 dollars.

"You do not think I can win, Lisa?" Thor asked seeming pleased at the prospect of women betting on him.

"I've never seen either of you fight before, so I have no idea but given that I'm bonded to Loki and he'll likely sulk all day if he loses, I kinda feel like I should back him."

"Very well, so what are the rules?" Thor asked.

"I don't know, how to you determine winners and losers on Asgard?" Darcy countered.

"Last one standing."

"Last man standing sounds like it will hurt, and I don't want to be nursing Asgardians all day," Lisa interrupted.

"What would you suggest?" Thor asked.

"Well rather than fighting, how about a sport?"

"I don't follow."

'_It's not exactly a difficult concept,'_ Loki thought.

Lisa's gaze cut to him for a fraction of a second and he realised she had heard him. He was certainly hearing a lot more of her thoughts recently, perhaps it went both ways.

"Something like one on one basketball, first to five hoops wins."

"Do we even have a basketball hoop?" Darcy asked.

"I can conjure a… hoop," Loki assured her. "What are the rules of this basketball?"

"I don't think there are any for one on one games," Lisa said. Basketball was an American game while in England people generally played netball, which although similar in principle, had vastly different rules. "But it's not like a league match or anything, so I guess the two people playing can make the rules."

They headed outside but Jane remained behind to do her work. As they walked a safe distance from the house, Darcy explained the rules of the game as she knew them.

"They call this 21 because the first person to 21 points wins. We need half a basketball court-"

"What does a basketball court look like?" Loki asked.

"I'll draw a diagram in the dirt. The first player dribbles the ball from the three-point line and tries to get the ball in the basket. If he misses, he can go for the rebound and shoot again. The others player defends the basket but you aren't allowed to touch each other, that's a foul and the other side gets a free shot, which means the other player can't try and stop the shot. If the first player gets a hoop, the other player takes the ball out from the three-point line. Free throws are a point, short made from inside the three point line are worth a point, shots taken from outside baskets are worth two points. The first player to score 21 points wins."

"Keep it simple," Lisa argued. "A square court, a hoop, a ball, all baskets are worth one point except free shots, which are worth two."

"Why, exactly?" Loki asked, especially since it was the opposite of the free shot rule Darcy had told them about.

Lisa shrugged. "I figure that both of you need an incentive not to play dirty."

Loki smirked, she was actually a pretty good judge of character.

"The foul rule sounds unnecessary," Loki argued.

"Agreed. Where is the fun if you can't roughhouse?" Thor asked.

Lisa thought that Thor's idea of roughhousing and hers probably differed a lot.

"Well, it's your game, so if that's how you want to play," she agreed. "But hitting the spectators, intentionally or by accident, means you lose five points."

Darcy opened her mouth up to argue, then apparently thought better of it. "Agreed."

"Thor?" Loki asked.

"It sounds good to me. You ladies will be our judges should there be any disputes?" Thor asked.

"We call that a referee," Darcy smiled. "But yeah, that's us."

Using a stick, Darcy drew a small diagram on half a basketball court in the earth, which Loki copied, only the half court was the size of two football fields and the hoop was easily sixty feet high.

* * *

Although she wasn't very familiar with basketball, the game being played didn't seem, to Lisa's untrained eye at least, to have much in common with basketball. Given that they were both using their powers, it probably had more in common with the fictional Quiddich.

Loki projected enough versions of himself as to qualify as a team all on his own, while Thor thought nothing of knocking the Loki's, be they his brother or his projections, into next week. Lisa only wondered that Thor didn't call his hammer and use that on his brother.

It wasn't that Loki was undeserving of a few good wallops, it was the fact that it was his brother delivering them. Thor had pleaded with her to take this assignment, telling her it was his brother's last chance at rehabilitation and that more than anything, he wanted his brother back.

Well if this was how he treated his brother, Lisa didn't want to think about how he treated his enemies.

It seemed to be some kind of competitive instinct that simply would not allow him to lose or as Lisa saw it, have fun. Thor had to win and as he did more and more damage to Loki, Lisa could feel Loki's anger rising.

Lisa understood sibling rivalry. She was always responsible for mishaps, even those that were her sister's fault because as the older sibling, she should have stopped her sister. And yes it was unfair to always be found at fault, especially facing consequences for events that you hadn't caused.

But she also realised that no matter how hard Sarah tried, Lisa would always be first in many things. She was the first to go to big school, the first to get a driving licence, a job, a boyfriend, to pass her exams, to go to a dance, go to university. All Sarah could do was watch enviously as her older sister got to do everything she wanted to do first.

Lisa recognised that as the elder child, she had that advantage over her younger and smaller sister. She understood that there were some events where the object of competing was to have fun, not to win, and that sometimes losing was worth it, to see the radiant smile on her sister's face.

She knew that there were more important things in life than winning but Thor had obviously never learned that lesson. Thor must have the glory at all times, even if that glory was a simple one on one game.

She understood that Thor was a warrior and that winning or losing could mean the difference between living and dying, but she had treated a handful of military personnel since she had qualified, and she knew that they drew a line between work and personal. Indeed, one of the most frightening looking men she had ever met was a former infantry soldier suffering from PTSD. During their sessions, he had spoken with pride of his young daughter and showed her pictures from his wallet. One image had shown both father and daughter wearing giant, inflatable boxing gloves and while the 6'6" soldier pretended to be knocked out cold on the floor, his daughter, dressed in pink and a tiara, had stood over him triumphantly, one foot resting on her father's chest and the biggest grin her face could hold on her lips.

Would Thor learn his lesson before he had children, or would they too be taught that only winning mattered?

She was lost in her thoughts when an unusually loud crash reached her ears and she looked up to see Loki, the real Loki, sailing through the air. He crashed into a tree a few hundred feet away, with such force that the trunk was uprooted and Loki continued on.

Thor threw the ball into the hoop, reaching 21 points if Lisa's memory was correct, but if he was looking for to the girls to share in his triumph, he was disappointed as they were both running to the fallen Loki.

Although Thor could have reached Loki first if he had wanted, Lisa got to him first. She could feel his humiliation through their connection as he heaved himself upright.

"Are you all right?" she asked, throwing herself to her knees before him. She reached for his face but he pushed her hand away and got to his feet.

"I'm fine."

"Good game!" Came Thor's roar. "Well played, Brother."

"I lost, so not that well played."

Thor laughed but to Lisa's ears, Loki hadn't been making a joke.

"Come now, don't be a sore loser."

Lisa was judging by human standards but to her, Thor's win felt more like cheating. She could understand Loki's resentment. Looking back, the hoop looked tiny and she wondered just how far Loki would have travelled had the tree not broken his momentum.

"A sore loser?" Loki asked. "If I had known that we were using enough force to kill, I wouldn't have treated you so lightly, _Brother_." The final word with dripping with sarcasm.

"Loki, don't be like this?"

"Congratulations," Loki managed to say, although with very little grace.

"We were friend once, Brother." Thor seemed hurt and confused by his lacklustre response. "You were once happy for me to become king. Remember?"

"I remember you gloating, I remember-." Loki stopped dead in his tracks as an image of he and Thor appeared before them.

"_I've looked forward to this day as long as you have, you're my brother and my friend." He heard his younger self say. "Sometimes I'm envious, but never doubt, I love you." _

"_Thank you." _

_Both brothers smiled. _

"_Now, give us a kiss," Loki teased and both brothers laughed for a moment, until Thor grew serious._

"_Really, how do I look."_

"_Like a king_," Loki said with pride.

The ghostly figures faded.

"Magic, Brother? I thought my _tricks_ were beneath you."

"Mother shared her magic with me too, Loki."

"But you weren't interested, magic was for girls and cowards, you said. But I suppose it makes sense you would pay attention to projecting memories. What better way to impress everyone than telling stories? Letting them see your wonder with their own eyes, no?"

"You told me you loved me." Thor reminded him. "I just wanted to remind you that we were once best friends as well as brothers."

"And you believed that?" Loki asked incredulously. "_I_ let the frost giants in, to ruin your big day."

"A prank, Loki, your stock in trade back then. I don't believe you knew what it would lead to, you weren't that clever back then."

Loki didn't answer and Thor approached.

"We _were_ good friends back then, true brothers."

"We've both changed since that day," Loki reminded him.

"True, but it is also true that we were both arrogant and cruel, and neither one of us was ready to become king. My banishment to Earth taught me humility, it taught me that a good king is not a ruler of his people, but a servant to them. I fear that when you became king in my absence, you tasted something for which you weren't ready."

"Something that could never truly be mine. I claimed the throne by default, because the Odinsleep made Fath- made Odin unable to rule for a time. I knew that when he awakened, he would never willingly pass the throne to a Frost Giant. If I was to have a chance at what I had been promised, I knew I had to do something drastic, something heroic."

"You killed your father."

"Laufey was not my father, Thor, he abandoned me to die, I saw nothing wrong with returning that favour."

"And Odin?"

"He is not my father either."

Lisa felt a flicker of grief through their connection, but not for Odin, not for either of his fathers. She wished she knew who that brief but overpowering flash of grief was for.

"If you are all alone, Loki, it is by your choice."

"My choice?" Loki rounded on him. "The only family I knew was one gigantic lie!"

Thor sighed. "And what of trying to destroy Jötunheim and murdering the rest of your people?"

"The Frost Giants?" Loki gave a hollow bark of laughter. "Wasn't that your intent when you defied father and went to Jötunheim?"

"Yes, and father was right to banish me for it. I learned my lesson, Loki, but your life has been a mad scramble for power ever since."

The motivation Thor ascribed to Loki certainly seemed plausible. .

"So what, you will be my teacher?" Loki scoffed.

"No, I cannot teach you what you need to know, Loki and in truth, I fear it is a lesson you cannot learn, but I am still your brother and no matter what you do, no matter how far you fall, I will always love you, and I will always blame myself for what befell you."

"Blame yourself?" Loki asked.

"Had I not got it into my head to visit the frost giants and declare war, you would not have learned the truth about your parentage, you would not have viewed yourself as a monster, you would not have been given the throne, and you would not have fallen to the deepest reaches of space, where neither father and I, nor Heimdall could find you. I'm truly sorry for that."

"You still don't get it, do you?" Loki asked, but his tone was resigned, not cynical. "It's one thing to lose a race. It's quite another to realise that you were sabotaged from the very beginning."

Thor watched as Loki walked off, back to the house.

Lisa stepped up beside Thor. "I know you love him, and I know your father did what he thought was best for him, but you shouldn't have lied to him about his true parentage."

"You know not of what you speak, Lisa."

"I know a damn site more than you do," she assured him with such conviction, that he turned to her. "My birth parents were addicts; drugs, alcohol, anything they could get their hands on. I suspect that's where my telepathy comes from, something she took before I was born that scrambled my DNA or something. Anyway, I was raised by them until I was six, when my father killed my mother, my sister, himself, and he almost killed me. So yes, I know what it feels like to be the child of a monster. The only difference between me and Loki is that I was never lied to. My parents were honest with me from the first time I asked and as I got older, they told me more of the truth, and supported me while I dealt with the ramifications of that truth."

"Surely you learned of it because of your abilities, did you not?"

"No, my abilities didn't manifest until puberty. It's the law in my country that adopted children _must_ be told the truth about their parentage, because not to do so and risk them discovering the truth some other way, can rip their whole sense of identity away. I can cite you the studies on the subject, if you'd like."

Thor seemed to be considering her words.

"I didn't tell you this to make you feel bad, Thor, only to make you realise that when Loki discovered the truth, he discovered that the people he had trusted the most, had always lied to him about his true identity. How can you trust people who would tell such a huge lie?"

"I never lied to him. I didn't know."

"And that's probably true but look at it from his point of view, how can he trust you any more than your parents?"

"Do you have any advice to offer?"

"I can certainly get you some professional advice, articles and books on the subject. I'm afraid that I'm too closely connected to this situation to be an effective therapist but I can tell you one thing. In relationship counselling, it's very important for both parties to acknowledge their actions, and the pain those actions caused to the other party, even if they don't understand it. I know Loki isn't likely to return the gesture but since you're the one trying to reach him…"

"Thank you. I appreciate your perspective in this."

"I'll also try and find you some articles on good sportsmanship. No offence, but you're a bit of a dick when you win."

Thor's lips twitched slightly.

Lisa headed back towards the house, Darcy trailing beside her.

"Watching these guys is better than Days of our Lives." Darcy said when she thought they wouldn't be overheard.

Despite herself, Lisa laughed.

* * *

Life at the house continued with little to break the tedium. Lisa worked on her thesis and Loki kept to his room once more. If Thor took Lisa's advice, she didn't witness it, he seemed to give his brother a wide birth, while Jane worked on her latest theory, often disappearing down into the SHIELD base for hours at a time. Darcy seemed to spend most of her time watching television or bugging Lisa and Thor.

Lisa considered asking if she could stay in the bunker, as she was sure there was a lot more action down there than in the house but solitude was good for her work, so she stayed in the house. Darcy was always good for some company and although the two women were like night and day, Lisa grew fond of Darcy. She had a good heart and as far as Lisa was concerned, that was the most important thing in a person. Her antics almost always cheered Lisa too; she was insane, but very entertaining.

The evening meal had been awkward for a while but Darcy soon broke the tension among the group. Loki never joined them for the evening meal as he kept to his room most of the time. In fact she often went days without even glimpsing him. She had spoken to him only once since the baseball game; needing a change of scenery, she was reading in the library when he came down to choose new books. They exchanged a perfunctory greeting, then did their best to ignore one another. His thoughts made their way into her mind sometimes but she tried to ignore them, as one might tune out a conversation at the next table.

After much harassment, SHIELD installed an internet connection, although they blocked access to Skype and similar services. Apparently Lisa trying to talk to her family was now a matter of global security.

She was allowed one very brief phone call to her father, but whoever was listening to the call disconnected her after less than a minute. She didn't see how asking them how they were could hurt but apparently SHIELD considered her family's health a matter of national security.

At least she now had access to Netflix.

The dreams continued, different every night. Lisa dreamed of strange lands and weird creatures, of battles and feasts, of lovers she had never had and friends she had never met. Well, the friends were a bit thin on the ground but Loki hadn't always been alone. It didn't take her long to realise she was dreaming of Loki, but she didn't know if her dreams were fabrications of her mind, or something more.

Occasionally she dreamed of something so awful, that she felt as if she had run a marathon when she awoke, but she could never remember what she had dreamed of and she didn't try too hard to recall it either. On those nights, she daren't try go back to sleep and watched horror films on her laptop until everyone else awoke.

Loki dreamed of two sisters and two families, although memories of the first were vague. He dreamed schools and universities, of discos and braces, of job interviews and family dinners. He quite liked his dreams, they were certainly better than his own but occasionally, he dreamed of something awful. He would be cowering in the corner, shielding someone else, just as a third person tried to shield him. He heard the cries of children howling and the screams of pain. He felt someone hurting him but while the pain was endurable, for Loki had endured far worse, the agony of someone he loved being the one to hurt him was unbearable.

He too had realised that he was sharing Lisa's dreams. He thought it was because she as telepathic and in sleep, was probably broadcasting her thoughts. He never stopped to wonder if she felt his dreams also.

* * *

Unfortunately, there was only so much Darcy that Lisa could take and since she was fast running out of excuses, she approached Loki's door.

"Come in," he called before she could raise her hand to knock.

'_I'm insane,'_ she thought, pushing the door open.

Loki was lounging on the bed, book in hand, but he didn't look up as she entered.

"Hey."

"Leave your bribe on the table and you can stay and read your book for one hour."

"How did you-"

"You think incredibly loudly these days. I'm hoping that if you engage in reading, your mind might quieten down a little."

'_Yeah, I'm the loud one. Thanks for taking so much pleasure in Tropic of Cancer by the way, those sex scenes _weren't in the slightest_ bit distracting.'_

Loki's only reply was a smirk and she decided that discretion was the better part of valour and shut up. The plate with chocolate cake disappeared from her hands, reappearing next to Loki, so Lisa settled herself on the sofa, sahe in the knowledge that this was the one room that Darcy wouldn't dare look for her in.

_'My word, she must have sold her soul to someone to have the talent to make cake this good.'_

With a smile on her lips, she opened her book.

* * *

"If he doesn't stop stealing my cake, I'm going to put that boy over my knee and give him a bloody good spanking!"

Darcy laughed at Lisa's anger. "That I would pay money to see."

Lisa huffed. She didn't believe in corporal punishment and couldn't have spanked Thor even if she had wanted to, but the very fact that he had her threatening violence proved how angry she was getting. It didn't matter how many chocolate cakes she made, or where she hid her cake her stash, he almost always found and devoured it. She might not mind, if he would just admit that he had taken it! But seriously, how much cake could one man eat?

"I'm going to make ten cakes, sit him down and force him eat every single one," she threatened. "Maybe he'll be so sick afterwards that he'll go off cake entirely."

Darcy laughed but they were interrupted by Nick Fury, who stormed into the kitchen with a scowl on his face.

"Where's Thor?" he demanded, trying to rival Thor in the booming voice stakes.

"Uh, he and Jane are-" Lisa began to answer.

"I'm here." Thor stroke into the kitchen, his usual good humour dampened by Fury's tone. "Is there a problem?"

"You might say that."

"Loki?"

Lisa could hear the concern in Thor's voice but she wasn't sure what worried him, that they would be banished from Earth? Fury would demans Loki be kept in more secure conditions? Or perhaps, although she had seen no signs of it, he had found some scheme for world domination again?

"Not this time. Banner is missing."

Lisa thought that sounded like someone's dog. It obviously meant something to Thor though and he took off running, thundering up the stairs, roaring "LOKI!"

After a second's hesitation, they all took off after him, Fury in the lead, Jane behind him, Darcy and Lisa bringing up the rear. By the time they got into Loki's bedroom, Thor had his brother pined up against the wall by the neck and from the amount of plaster that's been knocked off, he'd probably been rammed into the wall a few times.

"Tell me where he is!"

Loki was glaring daggers at his brother and Lisa was surprised he didn't use his tricks to defend himself. He was literally seething at this injustice.

"Who?" Loki asked through clenched teeth.

"Banner!"

"I don't know."

"He is the only human you are afraid of, now tell me what you've done with him!" Thor punctuated the demand by ramming him back into the wall again. Once more and Loki would probably be in the next room.

"I have done nothing to him," Loki insisted, but the rage in his eyes increased and Lisa could almost swear she saw a red glow.

Lisa believed him.

'_Please don't,' _Lisa warned. _'It's unfair and unjust but if you fight fire with fire, you will pay the price!'_

Granted, Asgardians might lie differently to humans but he was showing none of the characteristics that a human often displays when lying. Plus, Loki was furious at the unfairness of Thor's accusations.

"LOKI!" Thor punched him, which sent both Loki and Thor crashing through the wall, into the next room.

Both men were on their feet in seconds but when Thor approached Loki, some kind of barrier prevented him getting too close. Thor slammed his fist into it.

Fury made his way into the room next door via the hallway, while Lisa, Jane and Darcy peered though the man-size hole in the wall.

"I don't want to hurt you, brother," Loki sounded reasonable. "I don't know what happened to the beast and while I am not displeased at the thought of him coming to harm, it is not by my hand."

It was a standoff but Loki kept silent. Lisa's studies had taught her that innocent men don't feel the need to embellish their stories because they know what they say is true, so they don't expect evidence to the contrary to be presented, whereas guilty men embellish their lies, to make them sound more authentic. They also feel uncomfortable with silences and frequently give into the need to fill them. She'd bet her career that Loki wasn't involved in this.

'_Good to know, but you do remember that I am the God of lies?'_

She didn't even mind him reading her mind at that point. _'How can you joke at a time like this?'_

'_Because you're right, I didn't do this and I have nothing to hide.'_

It must be horrible for him to constantly have the finger pointed at him by his brother. How could Thor hope to rehabilitate Loki if he wouldn't place any trust in him? She'd have to discuss the concept of a self-fulfilling prophecy with him because eventually, Loki would tire of always being blamed and would cease trying to behave himself.

"He's telling the truth," Lisa said, with less authority than she felt.

Fury turned to her. "How can you tell?"

"My training and our bond. I can feel what Loki does, and he's not feeling the things a guilty person should feel."

"If you're expecting remorse, you're judging him wrongly," Fury told her.

Thor was listening with interest, but he kept his eyes focused on Loki and his fist pressed against the invisible barrier.

"I was going on his anxiety levels, actually. There's not a shred of fear in him and guilty people are always a bit worried they'll be discovered. Mind you, he's pissed as hell that you broke his wall and damaged the book he was reading."

"Does she speak the truth?" Thor asked Loki, at a more normal volume (well, normal for him).

"She does."

Thor lowered his fist and stepped back. "I'm sorry, brother. I thought the worst."

Loki nodded tersely but didn't actually accept the apology.

"Why don't we all go downstairs and discuss this in the kitchen," Jane suggested and everyone heartily agreed.

Everyone filed out until it was just Lisa and Loki left there, and Lisa stepped through the hole from Loki's room into Thor's bedroom.

"Aren't you coming?" she asked.

"I don't expect I would be welcome."

"Maybe not, but you don't see like the type to let that bother you. Besides, you're the prime suspect right now, if you hear what's going on, you might be able to prove it wasn't you."

"Sometimes, you speak rather wisely for a human."

Lisa's lips twitched at the backhanded insult.

"And occasionally, you aren't a total dick."

"Only occasionally?" He raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

"Only very occasionally." She didn't expect him to thank for coming to his defence and she was right, he didn't. "Come on."

They followed the voices into the living room and as they entered, everyone looked a little surprised at his presence but no one suggested he leave.

"-almost two days without contact," Fury finished saying.

"Does he not usually prefer solitude?" Thor asked.

"He does, and we give it to him. Since New York, he's actually been pretty good at letting us know where he is."

"Perhaps this is just an oversight?" Thor suggested.

"I wish. The problem is, even if he did try to drop off the radar, we've gotten pretty darn good at tracking him. There's no trace, nothing."

"Doesn't he emit low level gamma radiation?" Jane asked.

"That's what Stark said," Fury confirmed. "He thinks he can adapt the program they used to track the tesseract to find Banner, but-" he stopped talking when he heard a beep and held a finger up, telling them to wait, while his other hand went to his ear piece. "Report."

Everyone waited patiently and when Fury turned back, he had a new sense of urgency about him.

"Well?" Thor stepped forward.

"The Hulk was just sighted in New York, at Stark Tower."

"Well then, perhaps he was just making his way to see a friend," Thor smiled.

"No, not Banner, the Hulk," Fury corrected. "Early reports say he was after Stark and they've left a trail of devastation across the city as Stark tried to escape him."

"Why didn't Iron Man just fly off?" Lisa asked.

"The main confrontation seemed to go down in Central Park, so I'd say Stark was trying to lead him away from populated areas."

"Why would the Hulk want Stark?" Darcy asked. "I mean yeah, Stark can be annoying but not hulk-out annoying."

"I need to get to the city," Fury said. "I'll have a better idea what's happening once we're there."

"Do you require assistance?" Thor asked.

"Someone with your strength might be welcome, except…" he glanced at Loki. "Can he be left alone?"

"I'm not a child," Loki muttered.

"I would not recommend it but Loki has behaved impeccably since we arrived, unlike myself, I believe he might be trusted to accompany us."

'_It's not exactly a ringing endorsement_,' Lisa thought.

Loki's lips twitched.

"All right, I don't have time to argue," Fury decided, turning to Loki. "Just know that if you so much as crack a paving slab, I'll make what the Hulk did to you feel like a walk in the park."

Loki gave a languid nod of understanding.

"Good. The plane is being readied as we speak, wheels up in ten." Fury walked out.

"I'd better go pack," Jane said, jogging from the room.

"Me too," Darcy raced after her.

Thor and Loki turned to Lisa.

"What?"

"Do you not want to take any personal possessions with you?" Thor asked.

"And where would I be going?" she asked with a sinking feeling.

"You don't think they'll let you stay here alone, do you?" Loki asked, a smile on his lips.

"Why not? I didn't try to enslave the human race!"

"No, but you are my conscience, apparently, and where I go, you must follow."

She'd been enjoying the idea of a few days to herself, without Loki's emotions upsetting her own.

"I don't know why you're so keen on me going, I thought humans were inferior." She huffed.

"You _are_ beneath me."

He was taking entirely too much pleasure in ruining her plans. "Trust me, if I was beneath you, we would both be having a lot more fun right now."

She walked out to Thor's guffaws of laughter and was momentarily pleased with herself, until Loki's thoughts popped into her head.

'_Prove it.'_

She shivered

* * *

AN: The scene where Thor shows Loki the memory of Loki saying he loves his brother, is an excerpt from a deleted scene from the beginning of Thor 1. It's available on You Tube if you haven't seen it.


	5. Chapter 5

Norse proverb: There is mingling in friendship when man can utter all his whole mind to another.

**Chapter Five**

Stark tower had changed little from the last time Loki was here, even the destruction. The hulk had obviously been busy. Loki's reception was just about as warm as then too, except he wasn't offered a drink this time. Shame, he would have said yes.

"Hey, Che Guevara, long time no see." Stark said as the party entered. "Someone want to tell me what the hell is he doing here?" he asked as he crossed to Loki.

Stark looked pretty beaten up, despite having had the protection of his Iron Man suit when the attack happened.

Steve Rogers and Clint Barton also approached them.

Thor stepped between Loki and the Avengers, placing a hand on Stark's chest to stop him.

"I would not," Thor warned. "Loki is no threat to you but if provoked, I could not guarantee your safety."

Barton scoffed but was clever enough not to take on Thor. "Did you know he was back on Earth?" he demanded of Fury.

"I did."

"After everything he did last time? You just allow him to come back? I thought he was being punished on Asgard!"

"We can argue about Loki later," Steve interrupted, ever the diplomat. "Right now we need to focus on finding Banner and having two Asgardians could be useful."

"I'm not here to help," Loki said.

Thor shot his brother a disapproving look. "No, he's here to be babysat."

Loki glared at Thor.

"Well if you aren't here to help, better get out," Stark said, backing away but not turning his back on Loki. "You don't have security clearance; only good guys get clearance high enough to know what's going on here."

Loki saw Lisa backing away slowly, so as not to draw attention to herself.

"Not you, Blondie," Tony called out to her. "Pretty women are always welcome, security clearance or no."

Loki realised that Stark was just trying to goad him.

"Jarvis, show Russell Brand the way to a guest suite, the smallest we have."

"_Of course, Sir."_

Loki didn't move.

"Perhaps it is best, brother," Thor prompted.

Loki considered arguing but he knew that battles had to be chosen carefully and in all honesty, he wasn't interested in finding the Hulk.

With a nod to the room, Loki turned to leave. Lisa clearly did not intend to take Stark up on his offer and was waiting by the door.

"You too, Miss Lewis," Fury added and reluctantly, Darcy left with them.

Using vocal commands, Jarvis directed them down in the elevator, then gave them directions to their respective rooms.

Loki's room was acceptable and he doubted it was the smallest, but it was far from the grandeur he had enjoyed as a prince. It was better than his cell though, especially the second cell he'd occupied.

Loki shuddered at the thought and quickly brushed those memories aside. He had no need to unpack because a magician doesn't need to bring a change of clothes with him, but he did need a distraction.

"Jarvis?" he said aloud to the room.

"_Yes, Sir?"_

"Is there a library here?"

"_No, Sir, although we do have a digital archive."_

He could conjure a book but he had to know which book he wanted to do that, which would mean he was already familiar with it and had either read it, or decided it wasn't worth his time. One of the joys of travel was getting to explore other libraries and discover tomes he had not yet encountered. He should have realised that Tony Stark didn't read though, the man was too self-obsessed to immerse himself in the work of others (and yes, the irony of that statement was completely lost on him).

So what was he to do with himself while the Avengers searched for their comrade?

* * *

Lisa was enjoying herself. Stark's building was awesome (not a word the British use lightly) and her room was the most luxurious she had ever seen in her life but hands down, the best thing about it was Jarvis, who would literally do anything she asked. Well, maybe not anything, but he did all he could. Right now he was playing some of her favourite songs while she unpacked and so that she didn't feel foolish, Lisa had even convinced him to sing along with her. His voice was much better than hers but then again, he had the benefit of electronic auto tune, and she didn't.

Thanks to the good sound insulation, the music was so loud that she didn't hear the knock on her door and only when a stab of irritation pierced her good mood, did she realise Loki was close, and thinking some very unkind thoughts about being ignored.

"Coming," she calls, forgetting that he couldn't hear her.

As she opened the door, Loki stepped back, assaulted by the volume of the music. A flick of his wrist silenced it.

"Hey, I was listening to that!"

"And now you are no longer."

"Jarvis?" she tried calling but the electronic butler didn't answer. "I don't know what he did to you but I'm sorry."

"That's quite all right." Loki answered.

"I wasn't talking to you," she glared at him. "I was apologising to Jarvis for the egotistical oaf who just silenced him."

Loki looked utterly perplexed and Lisa rolled her eyes, of course he wouldn't get it.

"What do you want?"

"Might I come inside?"

"If my room is better than yours, I'm not switching."

"My room is perfectly adequate," he replied, then waited for her to invite him in. "If you allow me entrance to your room, when we are finished I will undo the magic that has silenced the artificial voice."

"Fine." With little enthusiasm, she opened the door and he strode in.

He was looking around but didn't feel unhappy, from which she deduced that her room was no better than his.

"What do you want?" she asked, sitting on one of the couches in the room, although really it was more of a suite of rooms.

"I came to discuss your gift," Loki stated.

"What about it?" she asked, frowning.

"I was curious about whether anyone had ever taught you how to use it."

"No, everyone who knows has always advised me not to use it."

"So you have practised not using it then?"

"More like finding ways to ignore it really, I can't actually stop it working."

Loki nodded as he processed that. "I believe that, like so much in this realm, your thinking is flawed."

"And I believe, like so many arseholes I've had the misfortune to meet, your thinking is flawed is you believe I give two hoots what you think."

"I'm trying to help you."

She could see his irritation. "Why?"

"I don't understand."

"Why are you trying to help me," she clarified. "You don't give a shit about me."

"Perhaps not, but I am in need of a distraction and your gifts need training."

"Sorry, not interested." She got to het feet and went to the door to show him out, but his next words stopped her.

"I can teach you to turn it off, to use Midgard parlance."

She turned back, hardly daring to believe that he might be able to help her.

"Like so many, you believe that ignoring the problem will make it go away when in reality, only gaining control of your gift, through practice and training, will you be able to use it at will, essentially, turning it off when wish not to use it."

She hadn't through of it like that. He might have a point however.

She had always hoped that the phrase 'use it or lose it' might apply to her telepathy and the less she tried to use it and the more she ignored it, increased the chance that it might shrivel up and die.

Loki could be wrong, of course.

"I'm not," he assured her.

"How can you hear that?" she demanded. "I wasn't broadcasting."

"It must be related to the bond."

Lisa rolled her eyes but didn't press the matter. "So what makes you think you can help me?"

"Telepathy is just form of magic, and I am a master of magic."

Lisa thought it over for a second, then gestured to the seats. "Tell me more."

Loki sat down and waited until she was settled before he began.

"What you humans call magic is trickery or sleight of hand, but true magic is the harnessing of forces that your science does not yet understand, but that does not mean that you cannot use those forces, even if you don't understand it."

She didn't get it.

"Your science, say for example, biology, explains how the eye works, correct?"

"The wavelengths of light are focused onto the retina, where they destroy molecules in the cone and rod cells, which sends impulses to the brain that are interpreted into images."

"But if you didn't know that, would you still be able to see?"

"Of course." The penny dropped and Loki smiled at her. "So you're saying I have, like, telepathy cells that pick up brain waves, even although I don't understand the science behind it."

"That's a crude metaphor but essentially, yes. You are absorbing a force that is as yet unrecognised by humanity."

"So that's magic?"

"Magic is simply the ability to recognise and harness those forces. All humans will be receiving those, what did you call them, brain waves?" She nodded. "You are just one of the few who happens to have the 'eyes' with which to see them."

She didn't know whether to believe him.

"Your planet has a magnetic field running through it, correct?" he asked rhetorically.

"Yeah?"

"Yet you all walk around all day long, blissfully unaware of the magnetic energy around you. You don't even know it's there until you use a compass. The energies we harness for magic are flowing around and through everything, just like the earth's magnetic field, but only a few have a metaphorical compass that they can make use of that energy with."

"So if I do this, will I be able to harness other sorts of magic?"

"Possibly. Human's ability to sense and harness the magical forces around them is almost non-existent by the standards of other races, which is probably why your science ignored them, because most people are ignorant of these energies. I would not be expecting, as humans might say, miracles however, you are more sensitive than your peers but still not highly sensitive to magical forces."

"Sometimes, I don't know if you're just really good at backhanded compliments, or simply very skilled at being a dick."

Loki actually smiled.

"So, when do we start?" she asked.

"Now."

"I haven't even finished unpacking yet."

'_And you can finish later. The sooner we start, the sooner you will have control.'_

She wanted to argue but he was right and more importantly, the offer of control was too tempting to resist.

"Okay."

'_Good. First, you and I will communicate only telepathically from this point on.'_

"But what-"

'_Uh uh, telepathically.'_

'_Fine. What if someone else is in the room?'_

'_If you have something to say to them, say it, but speak to me telepathically. I won't be afraid of you as humans might be.'_

'_Fine. What next?'_

'_Can you read minds without the person knowing?'_

'_Of course.'_

'_And is your power limited by distance?'_

'_Yes.' _She nodded.

'_Can you hear Darcy's thoughts?'_

'_Yeah, but she's only next door.'_

'_And what are your normal limitations?'_

'_I don't know, I've never measured it but when someone isn't upset and thinking loudly, maybe thirty feet.'_

'_We will start with distance then, moving away from Darcy's room until she becomes difficult to hear.'_

'_So what, straining will make it easier, like straining to lift weights to build up muscle.'_

'_The analogy is inexact but basically correct.'_

'_You know, people would like you more if you were less insufferably superior.'_

A small smile graced his lips as he replied. _'I know.'_

* * *

As closely as he could approximate, Loki and Lisa were now sixty feet from Darcy Lewis and it was no longer a strain for Lisa to hear Darcy.

'_We should move, again,'_ Lisa said.

'_Not yet, now you must focus on continuing to hear her while distracted.'_

'_Distracted how?'_

With a theatrical click of his fingers, the music that had been playing earlier started up again, just as loudly, despite her being a long way from her room.

'_Pick Darcy's voice from the noise,'_ Loki instructed. _'Focus on her, listen only for her.'_

'_That's easy. It would be like not being able to read a book because there's music playing. She's still watching Days of our Lives, she thinks the guy on TV is almost as hot as Thor.'_

'_Interesting.'_

'_What's interesting, that Darcy fancies Thor?'_

'_No, your gift. I have wondered exactly how you hear other's thought, now I know that whatever is sensing them, it's not your ears, only your brain interpreting it as sound.'_

'_I never thought it was.'_

'_We need more people then.'_ Loki silenced the music.

'_Why?'_

Loki rolled his eyes. _'So you can practice focusing on one voice in a crowd.'_

Considering the size of Stark Tower, there were very few staff because Jarvis took care of so much and although this place had been intended as a workplace, as well as a home for Tony and Pepper, Stark seemed reluctant to actually have anyone work here. Given his Iron Man activities, Lisa could understand it, wherever Tony was became a target, Stark Tower did too, as the Hulk proved in his earlier attack.

"Loki!" suddenly came the dulcet tones of Thor. "Loki, where are you?"

"Here, brother, I'm not hiding."

As he rounded the corner, Thor seemed initially displeased, until he noticed Lisa.

"Did you think I was trying to escape?"

"I confess, when I found your room empty, I considered the possibility. I apologise."

Loki nodded but didn't accept the apology. Lisa noticed that was something of a habit with him.

"I must leave." Thor told them.

"Why?" Lisa asked. She was burning with curiosity about what was going on with the Avengers.

'_You can read his mind,'_ Loki reminded her.

'_That's impolite.'_

"The Hulk has been sighted to the south of the city. We must try and retrieve him before too many are hurt. Please, brother, do not try to leave."

Loki bowed his head but didn't actually say yes. It was enough for Thor however, who turned and left.

'_Follow his mind,'_ Loki told Lisa. _'Let me know when he and the others have left the building.'_

'_Why?'_

'_You'll see.'_

Since the Avengers were based about ten floors above, Lisa had to strain to keep track of Thor and the others, but she managed.

'_He's flown off but the others are going by plane, which is slower.'_

Loki waited patiently.

'_Okay, they've gone.'_

'_Good, let's go.' _He grabbed her hand and dragged her along.

'_Whoa, go where?'_

'_Out. We need people and we won't find them here.'_

'_You can't leave.'_

'_Of course I can.'_

'_You promised Thor you wouldn't!'_

'_I did no such thing. Now please be quiet, I must concentrate.'_

He ushered her back into her room, then took both her hands.

'_What are you- Oh shit!'_

* * *

Lisa just made it to a trash bin before she threw up.

"Don't ever do that again!" she yelled once she was finished, although she was still bent over the receptacle, just in case.

'_How else were we going to get out of the tower unobserved?'_

'_I didn't want to get out of the tower!'_ she reminded him.

'_Just think of it like a school field trip.'_

'_I don't have any money or any I.D. with me. What of the police stop us?'_

'_Why would they?'_

'_I don't know, maybe because you're a psycho who tried to destroy the city.'_

Loki laughed and she turned to glare at him.

"What are you wearing?"

'_Telepathy,'_ he reminded her. _'And I thought it best to blend in.'_

He was dressed in a very conservative black suit and tie, with a rather dashing if old fashioned silk scarf. He wore the look well though and with his long black hair, he looked pretty handsome, actually.

'_Thank you.'_

'_That was an observation, not a compliment.' _

He shrugged, not caring if there was a distinction. '_To answer your question, I thought I should blend in.'_

'_To be honest, I was surprised you weren't wearing your armour when we came here.'_

'_I can summon it at will, so I thought it best not to raise any hackles.' _

'_So you aren't quite as dumb as you make out when it comes to other people.'_

Loki grinned at her. _'Has your sickness passed?'_

'_Yeah.'_

'_Then let's begin.'_

He led her from the quiet alleyway they had landed in and onto the main streets.

'_Where are we?'_

'_Heading towards what you call Time Square.'_

'_How can you know that?'_

'_Magic. I am in constant contact with everything around me, the people, the objects, they all contain magic. I always know where I am, in any realm.'_

Time Square was thronged with people, many of them seemingly tourists but a few locals looked to be making their way through he city via the landmark.

'_You'd think with the Hulk attacking this morning, they'd go home,'_ Lisa mused, not minding if Loki overheard her thoughts or not. She was getting used to the idea that he could hear everything, and just ignore the bits that didn't interest him.

'_The thrill of battle draws them in,'_ Loki answered.

'_Thrill of battle? None of these people are going to be in a battle, if anything happens, they'll just run, or maybe get squished by masonry or something.'_

'_None the less, people enjoy excitement, and there is nothing more thrilling than risking one's life.'_

'_Even you?'_ she asked.

'_Even me,' _he smiled. _'I'm known for my magic but I am an exceptional warrior, second only to Thor. He always-' _His thought cut off abruptly and she caught a glimpse of something terrifying, but only a glimpse.

'_Is that why you invaded earth?'_

'_What?_'

It seemed to take him a moment to realise what she had said, and she wondered what she had seen in his thoughts.

'_No, the thrill of battle wasn't why I invaded.'_

'_Then why?'_

'_My dear girl, you seem to be labouring under the misapprehension that we are friends; we're not.'_

'_Pardon me, your highness.'_

'_You're forgiven.'_

'_I was being sarcastic.'_

'_I know.'_ He flashed her a toothy grin.

'_You are such an arrogant git,'_ she said.

'_True, but we're not here to flatter my ego. Pick a random person in one of the eateries.'_

'_Why?'_

'_So you can practice hearing them through a crowd. I chose the eateries because that seems to keep you humans occupied and in one place for a while.'_

'_Oh, like you Asgardians don't linger over dinner.'_

* * *

She was no longer able to hear the thoughts of the man she had chosen very well, since he was being drowned out by the crowd of minds between them. With practice, she had maintained contact with her chosen diner over a distance of almost two hundred feet but it was hard. Since hearing Loki always seemed to be no problem for her, they were now walking in opposite directions while she discovered over how great a distance she could stay in contact with him. She had been walking for ages but there was still no increase in difficulty hearing his thoughts.

'_Loki?'_

'_Hm?'_

'_Can your magic manipulate a public telephone? Make it think I've put money in?'_

'_Child's play.'_

'_Would you mind, before we go back, if I tried to call my family?'_

She heard Loki sigh.

'_Think about it, you get to observe another aspect of me,'_ she tried to talk him into it.

'_What makes you think I have the slightest interest in you?'_

'_Because of who you are? Understanding everyone around you, what makes them tick, that's your _raison d'etre_.' _

Through their link, she could feel that he almost seemed impressed with her observation.

'_Please?'_ she wasn't above begging.

'_Very well, as long as you are quick.'_

'_Wow, who knew you'd be as big a dick as SHIELD. You could always entertain yourself by pulling the legs off spiders while I'm talking to them.'_

He laughed. _'I always prefer pulling the legs off kittens.'_

'_What!'_

'_It's a joke; we don't have felines on Asgard. Well, we do, just not small, domesticated ones.'_

She wasn't so sure._ 'How do you feel about fire?'_ she asked.

'_It has its uses.'_

'_Do you like starting fires?'_

'_Not particularly, no more so than doing other magic.'_

'_Okay, and when you were a kid, did you, uh, wet the bed a lot?'_

'_What kind of question is that?'_

'_Just answer it, and I can feel your emotions so I'll know if you're lying.'_

'_I can't recall any problems.' _Suddenly he appeared beside her. _'Unless you count creating a rain cloud over Thor's bed.'_

'_Jesus!'_ she jumped. _'A little warning next time!'_

'_We're were already five miles apart, unless you want to keep walking all night.' _

'_It's got to be thanks to the bond, because I definitely can't do this with normal people.'_

'_Now tell me what those stupid questions were about, or I won't help you make your telephone call.'_

'_We call it the triad of sociopathy. Basically if you have a person who as a child was cruel to animals, started fires and wet the bed until fairly late, he's guaranteed to be a sociopath and will be a murderer or sexual predator, sometimes both.' _

She could have sworn she heard Loki growl.

'_Something wrong?'_ She asked.

'_Just the type of men you speak of. Nothing but bullies and cowards. Thor and I despised them.'_

She stopped walking.

'_What?'_ he asked, turning back once he realised she was no longer beside her.

'_You kill hundreds, try to subjugate seven billion people, and you dislike people who abuse animals? Forgive me if that seems hypocritical.'_

'_There was a purpose to everything I did,'_ he tried to explain. _'To take sadistic pleasure in the pain of another though, that is a depravity that I despise. When I kill, I give swift, clean deaths if I can.'_

'_What do you mean, 'if you can'?'_

'_I was a warrior, like Thor. Sometimes in the heat of battle, it isn't always possible to check that your opponents are dead; although we always checked at the end, some may have suffered.'_

She supposed she could understand that, and she had read her fair share of war stories, so she knew that killing in battle didn't make one a murderer, or even heartless, it was a duty they took on to protect their country or other weaker countries.

'_So if you were second only to Thor, you were once respected?'_

'_Once,' _he conformed in clipped tones.

'_What happened to you?' _she asked, stepping closer and staring into his eyes, as if the answers could be found there, if she just looked hard enough.

'_There's a telephone box around that corner.'_ He turned and walked away.

She thought that she might have an inkling of what had happened to him but she had never asked about his dreams. She daren't.

When she rounded the corner, he was waiting beside a phone box and she ran to catch up, thrilled by a chance to talk properly with her family. She picked the handset up, but her heart sank as she realised that it had been torn lose from the box.

"Damn it!" She slammed the handset back down.

'_Are you crying?'_

'_No!'_ Lisa sniffed and turned away. _'I'm fine, I just got my hopes up, that's all.'_

'_You really care about those people, don't you?'_

'_They're the whole reason I'm doing this.'_

'_But 'doing this' takes you away from them.'_

'_I know, but they will benefit from this, so it doesn't matter if I'm unhappy. I just… I just got my hopes up, that's all.'_

Thankfully, Loki didn't answer.

'_Let's get back, shall we?'_ she suggested. _'I don't know about you but I have a headache coming on and could use a drink.'_

'_As you wish.'_

* * *

When they returned to the tower, they had been completely unmissed, which Lisa was thankful for. No one else was around, save for Jane, Darcy and Jarvis, so they raided Tony's bar and had themselves a little party in Darcy's room. It was Darcy's idea and only the offer of a twenty year old, genuine, single malt scotch whisky, convinced Loki to join them, and he hogged the bottle to himself.

Lisa didn't mind, she preferred vodka anyway.

The television was on in the room so that they could hear if there was any news of Thor and the others but Jane wasn't really in the partying mood and left them to it.

It didn't take long until they were all well on their way to being smashed, and Darcy was already asleep, when the news switched to footage of the earlier rampage. Choppers were grounded because of the risk that the Hulk could hurl debris at them, and the lesser risk that they might hit Iron Man. He would most likley survive such a collision, but the chopper probably wouldn't.

People had captured video on their phones however, and news stations had compiled some of that footage. Most of it was grainy and jumpy but some footage was better than others. Lisa winced as Thor was thrown into a building by the Hulk.

'_Ouch,'_ she thought.

Loki gave a mental sigh, almost of longing.

'_What's that for?'_ Lisa asked, hoping it wasn't a desire to hurt Thor himself.

He didn't answer for a long time and she thought he wouldn't.

'_Thor was right, you know, what he said the day we played basketball. I didn't used to crave power. Early on, I realised Thor would become king. I paid lip service to competing with him but by Asgardian standards, my gifts were not appreciated. Even when I had the throne, I sought to keep it but… It wasn't a lust for power so much, as a need to prove myself better than Thor. I has just learned that my whole life was a lie and suddenly, coming second to Thor, through no fault of my own, was unthinkable. He was everything I wasn't, he had everything I wanted just given to him and it wasn't fair. I hated him for that.' _

'_Why are you telling me this?'_

Loki shrugged, his head lolling.

'_The drink,'_ she thought.

'_Probably,'_ he laughed.

'_So… What happened to you? What changed?'_ Lisa asked.

'_I was a coward, that's what happened. Rather than face their wrath, I fell into the abyss. I don't know where I landed, but it was a thousand times worse than any humiliation I might have face in Asgard. It had no name but what it did have, was a lot of evil. My tricks served me well, mostly, but I soon learned that only the powerful survive, so I sought power.'_

'_That's why you tried to take over Earth?'_

'_No, Earth was just an extension of my need for power. I agreed to go to earth to reclaim the tesseract because…' He swallowed with fear. 'The Chitauri offered me a path out of that hell. They had the technology, combined with my magic, to reach out to the tesseract and create a path home. Only one could travel that path though so in return, I agreed to open a portal wide for everyone to escape that hell. Well, the Chitauri and everyone who paid them enough. It was the only way out. Ruling Earth was just… a consolation prize.'_

He looked at the screen with longing.

'_Do you wish you were still with him, fighting alongside him?'_

He didn't answer but the bittersweet emotions she could feel coming off him in waves was all the answer she needed.

'_Maybe it's not too late.'_

'_It's far too late,'_ he answered. _'The man I was is dead and the man I've become... I hardly recognise him, how can I expect Thor to? We've both changed far too much to ever be brothers again.'_

'_He still calls you brother. So do you.'_

'_A holdover from a long forgotten time, a shadow of what how we used to be. A cruel reminded of what once was, and what will never be again.'_

Were she sober, she might have argued with him but in her drunken state, and melancholy from missing her own family, she couldn't help but agree.

'_My family will always hate me too,'_ she told him. _'I can't tell them I made a deal with a demi-god to save my sister's life. They think I'm backpacking around the world, that I've turned my back on them. I can never tell them the truth, so they'll never forgive me, even if they accept me back into the fold.'_

Tears stung her eyes and she blinked them back.

'_You know what you need?'_ Loki asked.

'_What?'_ She expected condescension, scorn, sarcasm or ridicule. Instead she got understanding, or what probably passed for it in Loki's world.

'_Some ridiculously expensive and exquisite scotch whiskey.'_ He held the bottle up. _'If they're going to hate you for having a good time, you might as well live the highlife while we're here.'_

She held her glass out and he poured a very large measure of whisky in. Sadly, she was too far gone to appreciate the quality, but it did help her forget her troubles for a few hours.


	6. Chapter 6

Norse proverb: There is naught so vile as a fickle tongue.

**Chapter Six**

Lisa awoke the next morning to find her face laying in a puddle of drool on the carpet but it was hard to care too much about the inelegance of her situation, especially given the pounding in her head. Loki was gone, which she was glad of, but Darcy was lying half on and half off the couch, snoring occasionally. Lisa decided to let her sleep and with eyes half closed against the light, stumbled from the room, back to her own.

She brushed her teeth, drank cool water directly from the tap, downed more ibuprofen than was probably healthy and took a quick, almost scalding hot shower.

She felt marginally better when she emerged but that was probably more psychological from being clean, than any actual improvement in her condition. At least she didn't smell like a brewery any more.

Clad in her dressing gown with a towel wrapped around her hair, she lay on her bed to give the painkillers a chance to work, and ended up being shaken awake.

"Go away."

"Lisa!"

Her eyes snapped open. "Loki?"

"In the flesh." He looked entirely too healthy for her liking.

"Leave me alone."

'_We have to train, remember? Your telepathy?'_

'_Train tomorrow.'_ Huh, speaking telepathically was easier than verbally.

'_No, now. Remember your goal, total control.'_

'_My goal will still be there in a few hours.'_

'_But I won't. It's now or never.'_

'_Ugh, I hate you._' She sat up, one hand going to her head. _'God, how much did we drink last night?'_

'_A bottle of whiskey, half a bottle of vodka, most of a small bottle of lemmoncello, who knows how much tequila and Tia Maria.'_

'_Why are you so chipper?_' She hated that he wasn't feeling the effects.

'_Because I have the metabolism of a warrior.'_

'_Or it could just be because you're an alien. There used to be a TV show where aliens landed but sour milk got them drunk, not regular alcohol.'_

'_Sounds riveting,'_ he deadpanned.

'_Oh, leave me alone you snarky, sarcastic… jerk face.'_

'_Such eloquence.'_

'_Bugger off.'_

Loki gave a long suffering sigh. '_Fine_.'

The surge of hope in her, that he might leave her alone, quickly vanished. Instead he placed a hand to her forehead and one behind her head and squeezed.

'_Hey!'_ She stopped protesting when she realised that the pressure actually helped the pain in her head. Maybe Tony had a vice she could stick her head in for the rest of the day.

'_That won't be necessary.'_ He removed his hands and the pain didn't return.

'_Wow, what did you do to me?'_

'_Your electrolytes and fluids were unbalanced. I corrected their levels.'_

'_You can do that?'_

'_I healed your wrists, didn't I?.'_

'_Thanks.'_

'_I didn't do it for you.'_

'_Why are you even helping me when you really don't seem to like me?'_

'_I need a project.'_

'_Great. I hope you do well at the science fair.'_

'_The what?'_

'_Never mind. Give me a few minutes to get dressed.'_

He did and she set about dressing. Her hair was mostly dry but thanks to the towel it had been wrapped in, was sticking out at all sorts of odd angles. She decided to twist it up and secure it with a claw grip. She put tinted lip balm on, a little blush on her cheeks and mascara on her mostly grey eyelashes, and she was ready to face the day.

When she emerged from her room, Loki was waiting impatiently, leaning against the opposite wall.

'_I need food,' _she told him_._

'_Right this way.'_

'_I expected you to balk at that suggestion.'_

'_I've not eaten either. Besides, I want to discover what happened last night and having you with me means they are marginally less likely to kill me.'_

'_So I get to be your hostage or something? Yay me!'_

'_Sarcasm doesn't become you.'_

'_Oh yeah? Keep this up buddy and death will become you!'_

'_Very well, I give you my word that I will not hurt you.'_

She noticed that he didn't say anything about not using her as a human shield.

'_I just need to check in on Darcy first, make sure she doesn't have alcohol poisoning or something.'_

He huffed but allowed her to. Darcy was very much as Lisa had been before Loki 'healed' her, and she resented their intrusion, but at least she wasn't dead. She promised to come to breakfast as soon as she was ready, but Lisa knew she would be going straight back to sleep.

They ventured up to Stark's penthouse, and Loki explained that Thor had told him where to go.

Thor, Jane, Barton and Romanoff were seated there, the humans looking decidedly worse for wear. Clint glared as they entered but Natasha placed her hand over his, warning him not to do anything rash.

Loki also noticed that Thor had a few bumps and bruises that had yet to heal, and he took a perverse pleasure in the Hulk hurting him to the same degree that he had hurt Loki.

'_I hadn't even noticed Thor was injured.'_

'_Ah, but you don't know him as I do.'_

"Brother, Lisa, are you hungry?"

"Famished," Lisa admitted, but Loki only nodded once.

"The food is on the bar, help yourself."

Lisa didn't need asking twice. The bar had been laid out like a continental breakfast, with pastries, cereals, toast, butter, an urn of coffee and one of tea. Lisa busied herself but Loki just looked on in disgust.

'_Midgardians call this breakfast?'_

'_Yep, dig in. The Cheerios are pretty good."_

'_Even their name puts me off.'_

'_Suit yourself.'_

She took her food back to the table and sat opposite Thor and Jane.

"How'd things go last night?" Lisa asked, more to make conversation than because she thought they'd tell her anything.

"Well," Thor smiled. "We recovered Banner."

She felt her pulse quicken. "Is he okay?"

"He's pretty out of it," Jane said. "He doesn't remember much of what happened."

"So he doesn't know why he attacked?"

"No, he does not." She turned to see Fury walking into the room with purpose. "I was hoping you might lend us your professional opinion. Miss Mason."

"Professional? You want me to give him a psychological evaluation?"

"Yes. Will you help us, Miss Mason?"

"No."

"Pardon?"

"I said no. He just destroyed the Bronx and you want me to sit in the same room with the man? I'm sorry, but I value my life too much."

She couldn't really understand why she was so afraid, the Hulk had never harmed her and he was supposed to be fine when he was human.

'_Smart girl.'_

'_Oh of course, I'm feeling your fear.'_

'_I'm not afraid-'_

'_Stop it, you're terrified of him, hence, so am I.'_

"I realise this is an unusual situation for you, but I'm asking for your help here."

Everyone around the table was giving her odd looks. "You're right, I'm sorry."

"So you will help us?"

She could feel her hands shaking and put her spoon down before anyone could see, then hid her hands under the table. "I'll try."

"Is everything all right?"

"I'm absolutely terrified," she admitted. "But I'll do what I can."

"We'll do everything we can to keep you safe." She noticed that Fury didn't say she _would be_ safe. "Come down to the R and D lab when you're finished."

"Okay."

Fury strode from the room and Loki came to sit down next to her with a plate of croissants.

'_I thought we had plans today.'_

'_We can work on my telepathy later.'_ She gave him a pointed look.

'_I may be busy later.'_

'_Then that will be my loss then,'_ she snapped. Clint and Natasha were giving hem odd looks. _'Now shush, people are noticing something's wrong.'_

"Jane had I were planning on seeing some of the city before we return," Thor said in his booming voice and in that moment, she was really glad that Loki had removed her hangover. "However if you feel unsafe, we can delay our trip."

"No, you two go and have fun," she gave them her bravest smile. "Honestly, I'm just… nervous."

"Bruce is fine," Natasha spoke up. "As long as he doesn't get angry, you won't have any problems."

"Thanks. I'll be on my best behaviour."

"Clint and I will be sticking around, and Tony's here somewhere, and Steve."

"Wow… that's a lot of people around to help in a situation that isn't dangerous." She felt too nervous to continue eating so she settled for drinking her tea instead. When her cup was empty, she decided to get it over with.

"Fool." Loki muttered as she left.

* * *

Bruce Banner was in some kind of medical bay, but it was far more high tech than anything she was used to.

"Hey, look, its Barbie," Stark said as she entered. "I know you emptied half my bar last night."

"Yeah, sorry about that," she said, still too nervous to think up a decent excuse.

"You look surprisingly chipper, considering."

"Yeah." Her gaze was focused on the occupant of the next room, who was sitting on the edge of the bed while Fury spoke with him. He looked as bad as she felt earlier.

"Go right in, they're expecting you."

"Any tips?" she asked.

"Don't insult his mother, or try and take over the world, he really hates those things."

She nodded, surprised to realise that Stark's flippancy had helped. Taking a deep breath, she walked over to the door, which opened automatically to allow her entry.

"There you are. Lisa Mason, I'd like you to meet Dr Bruce Banner," Fury introduced them.

"Hi."

He gave her what she thought was supposed to be a reassuring smile but it didn't help.

"So, what exactly do you want me to do?" she asked Fury.

"I want you to look inside his head and see if you can sift through his memories."

"I thought you wanted me for my professional abilities?"

"I want you to look inside his mind. You are a telepath, right?" Fury asked.

"You should know, you're the ones who put me on your index."

"You are a psychologist, are you not. Don't tell me you never look inside people's heads while you treat them."

"I don't need to, I can hear their thoughts and it was SHIELD who advised me not to use my gift, so excuse me if I'm not comfortable sorting through people's heads."

"Just do what you can, Miss Mason."

Fury left the room.

'_I told you that you were a fool to trust them.'_

'_Shut up, Loki.'_

"It's okay," Bruce said. "I don't bite."

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to look at you like you're a spider or something."

Bruce smiled. "I've been called worse."

"Let's just start with a few questions to see what we're dealing with," she suggested.

"Pull up a chair."

"I assume we're being recorded," she said.

"I assume so too."

"Yep!" Tony's voice came over the intercom.

"Okay, so no need to take notes…" She dragged a chair a little closer to him, but still leaving over five foot between them. "So, uh, you don't remember having…"

"Gone on a rampage? No. That's not unusual, I don't remember of what happens when the other guy shows up but this time, I don't even know what set me off."

"Set you off? You mean, triggered the transformation?"

"Yeah."

"And how long does the transformation usually last?"

"An hour or two, usually."

"But you have no memory of the last…"

"Two days, nothing till I woke up here."

"Okay, so what is the last thing you remember?"

'_This is exceptionally fucking tedious.'_

'_Language, and shut up, Loki!'_

'_Oh dear, did I say a bad word?'_

'_I hate you.'_ "I'm sorry, Bruce, could you repeat that?"

"Sure, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I just… a tiny bit distracted. Please, go on."

'_Yes, please do go on.'_ Loki's voice was dripping with sarcasm.

'_SHUT UP!' _

'_Ow! That hurt.'_

'_Good'. _

"… small dive bar in Soweto, and that's it."

"Soweto, as in South Africa?"

"Yeah."

"I'm going to assume that the Hulk guy doesn't have a passport."

"No," Bruce smiled. "I don't think he'd make it through airport security either."

He had a nice smile, she thought but from the worry lines around his eyes, she got the impression that he didn't smile much.

'_A nice smile? Oh, please.'_

She ignored Loki.

"Okay, so Fury's told you I'm telepathic, right?"

"Yeah, he mentioned it. Didn't go into specifics."

"Truth is, I'm completely untrained but with your permission, I'd like to take a peek around and see if I can't dig anything up. I'll try to leave everything as I found it."

"Have you done anything like this before?"

"A couple of times, in school but don't worry, I won't do anything risky."

"Okay, so how do we do this?"

"Lie back, close your eyes-"

'_And think of England.'_

"-And think of England. I mean, relax! Try to relax." _'Loki, if you don't shut up, I'm going to find out how much damage I can do to a mind!'_

'_Promises, promises.' _

'_Look, I'll do whatever you want later but please, leave me alone to do this, it could be dangerous for me as well as Bruce, and you wouldn't want your new pet project to get broken would you?'_

When Loki didn't answer, she took that as agreement. Reaching out with her mind, she entered Bruce's head. Going into someone's mind was a little different from hearing their thoughts. It was the difference between hearing loud music playing outside someone's house, and breaking in and digging through their music collection.

She had done this a couple of times, A few times in school, she had gone digging for information in bully's heads and once, she had gone digging in her sister's head, after she stole and hid Lisa's diary. And she had cheated on a test once. Maybe twice. All right, a hand full of times. And then there was that time she wanted to find out if she was getting driving lessons for her birthday. And the the man who interviewed her for her college application, to see what he was looking for.

She pictured a mind like a house with endless rooms leading off hallways and stairs and landings. Most doors were helpfully labelled with things such as 'abstract thinking', 'thought analysis', and 'behaviour regulation'. She knew these were signs her own mind created because until she began studying psychology, they had far less accurate labels, such as 'decision room' 'archive' and 'emotions'.

The décor of the house however, seemed to be the design of the person whose mind she was in. She used to think that she imagined the house and how it looked, based on what she knew about a person, until she had been into her chemistry teachers mind once, searching for the answers to a pop quiz; his mind looked like a castle, straight out of an Arthurian legend. A quick search revealed an obsession with King Arthur, which Lisa couldn't possibly have known about.

She drifted through Bruce's mind until she found the short term memory. Looking inside, everything seemed in perfect working order, so there probably wasn't any brain damage to blame for his lack of memory. Moving on, she looked inside the long term memory, which she pictured as a file room. The memories were arranged by subject, which would have been tricky, so with a little concentration, she changed the format to chronological.

'_You're very good at this.'_

'_Did you just compliment me?'_ she asked, far more shocked by that than the fact he had disobeyed her.

'_I give praise where it's due and to be this proficient, you must have had a very miss-spent youth. I'm impressed.'_

'_Maybe just a tiny bit. Wait, are you in Bruce's head too?'_

'_So it would seem.'_

'_How?'_ Now that she knew he was here, an image of him materialised beside her, once again, obviously an image her mind conjured.

'_I laid back and relaxed, just as you suggested, then you pulled me along with you.'_

'_Wow, so does that mean I'm not in my own head anymore? What if I get stuck in here?'_

'_Relax, I'm sure I can help if the worse happens.'_

'_You probably can, its whether you would that worries me.'_

'_Then let's get this over with.'_

Lisa went to the most recent dates on the filing cabinets but almost two full days seemed to be missing.

'_Is that odd?'_ Loki asked.

'_Very. I'm going to try something else.' _The room around them disappeared and some sort of computer server room appeared. Lisa sat at the desk and began accessing the main computer, looking through files and directories.

Loki leaned over her, one hand resting on the back of her chair and she found him a little distracting. She could almost feel him smirk and he lowered his head and began to kiss her neck.

'_Loki.'_ He was very skilled but she couldn't allow him to distract her.

'_What?'_

'_Stop it.'_

'_Make me.'_

'_Last chance.'_

'_Or what?'_ he taunted.

She turned and glared at him, taking a perverse thrill as the chains coiled around his body like snakes, until he resembled a chain bound Mummy.

'_You might be the big bad out there, Loki but in here, I call the shots.' _

He was struggling something fierce against his bonds and she knew there was going to be hell to pay the next time she actually saw him, but she had to job to do right now and she turned back to the screen.

Loki continued to struggle beside her and she loosened the chains around his head so he could at least speak.

'_I didn't know you had a kinky side. Now that I do, our relationship could be a lot more fulfilling.'_

'_Stop it or I'll gag you again. I'm trying to work.'_

'_If you have this kind of power,'_ he said, _'you could literally have anything you wanted; money, power, fame, nothing would be off limits to you.'_

'_What's the point in having something you didn't earn?'_

'_Because then you possess it.'_

'_But you don't have a right to it. It's cheating.'_

'_There's nothing wrong with cheating.'_

'_Really?'_ She turned to him, incredulous.

'_If you have an advantage you have a duty to yourself to exploit it.'_

'_Okay, say you won a race but took steroids to do so. Maybe you'll get away with it but every time you look at that trophy, you know that you don't deserve it. And it doesn't matter how much success you get, how many people tell you how wonderful you are, if you cheated, it's always a hollow victory because you can't be proud of yourself.'_

'_So you're telling me you've never used your gift to cheat on a test?'_

'_Of course I have, I'm not a saint, and that's how I know that it isn't worth it. If I didn't earn my qualifications, then I don't have a right to them.'_

Loki gave a long suffering sigh; clearly morality was a worthless concept to him.

She continued searching through the "computer" files but had no success.

'_Nothing,'_ she groaned. _'There's one last thing I can try. Some people find images easier to remember.'_

The room around them dissolved, replaced by shelf after shelf of photograph albums. She grabbed the most recent and saw captured images of that morning; his breakfast, his walk, the bar he had spoken about, a beer he ordered, then a fuzzy picture, out of focus and at an odd angle. It looked like some of the pictures she took on her phone during the latter stages of a drunken night out.

She showed the image to a chain bound Loki_. 'Could you use your magic to recreate this once we get out?'_

He considered her for a moment or two. _'Perhaps.'_

'_It's a simple question, yes or no?'_

'_Release me and I'll give you the answer you seek.'_

'_Promise you won't try anything else?'_

'_I promise I won't try anything else until we're out of banner's head.'_

'_Fine.'_ The chains fell away.

Loki held his hand out for the picture, which she give to him. He frowned.

'_What?'_

'_I don't know. There's something… familiar.'_

She waited patiently but he gave up in the end, handing the image back to her.

'_Well?'_

'_Yes, I can project a replica of that image.'_

'_Thank you.'_

She took his hand and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she had to blink against the harsh fluorescent light.

"What did you see?" Bruce asked.

"You weren't aware of u- uh me?"

"No, didn't feel a thing, just had random memories popping up."

Before when she had done that, she had tried to be stealthy, lest anyone discover she was rifling in their heads, but stealth must be the default because she hadn't tried to hide herself from Bruce.

"Sorry about that, I had to try a few different things."

Fury and Stark came into the room.

"What did you discover?" Fury asked her.

"Not much. His memories of the past few days aren't just gone, they were never made in the first place."

"How can you tell?"

"Because people who forget things still have fragments of those memories. I checked over his memories from New York to see how the hulk remembers things, and it's weird, his memories are there, but it's as if they're stored in a different format, like trying to read Apple files on a Windows system."

"And for the last two days?" he asked.

"Nothing, not even the hulk's memories."

"What could do that?" Stark asked.

"I've never seen anything like it but if I had to guess, I'd say something like telepathic control, someone else took his body for a test drive and probably put his consciousness to sleep."

"Someone like you?" Fury asked.

"I've never tried to control someone else's movements but yeah, they'd have to have telepathic powers of some sort."

Fury, Stark and Banner were exchanging looks and she could hear their thoughts; they were all wondering if this was like what Loki did to Erik Selvig and Clint Barton.

"If you let me look into Agent Barton's mind, I can tell you if it's the same thing.'

Fury frowned.

"Sorry, but you guys aren't exactly being quiet with your thoughts."

Fury brought a communicator out. "Agent Barton, report to Med Bay."

'_It wasn't me,'_ Loki assured her.

'_I believe you.'_

'_Why?' _

'_For one, the distance involved and for two, I would have felt you doing it.'_

'_It's nice that you have so much faith in me.' _Sarcasm dripped from every vowel.

'_Faith is for children, Loki. If you want trust, you have to earn it.'_

"Did you learn anything?" Tony asked her.

"There was one thing, the last image from before he stopped recording memories. The image is blurred but-"

'_I don't think any of them would appreciate knowing that I was in Banner's head.'_

"But what?" Fury asked.

"I can communicate telepathically with Loki, if I let him see that image, maybe he can use his magic to project it for you."

"You think he'll agree to help?"

"He seems fascinated by my gift, so hopefully."

"Sir?" Barton stepped into the room, Natasha by his side.

"Agent Barton, Miss Mason would like to look at your memories from the time you were under Loki's control."

"Why?"

"So see if it's the same thing Banner is suffering from."

"My memories of that time are a little scrambled, to say the least."

"So you do have memories?" Lisa interrupted.

"Yeah, but it's like remembering a dream, or a drunken night; patchy and unclear."

"Then it's not the same thing," Lisa assured them. "Bruce didn't record any new memories at all."

"Loki may have become more sophisticated," Fury argued.

"This is more than sophistication, this is as if he was unconscious. Something or someone else was driving."

"Well if Barton doesn't mind, I'd still like you to check and compare."

Lisa looked to the agent, who nodded his agreement.

"Lie down and try to relax," she told him, gesturing to the unoccupied bed.

Once he was settled, Lisa closed her eyes and entered his mind.

'_Rather chaotic in here,'_ Loki said and he was right; she'd never seen a mind like it, in fact.

'_So, what are we looking for?' he asked. _

'_We? You aren't looking for anything.'_

'_Well I'm here, I may as well help.'_

'_No offence, but I don't trust you not to mess this guy's head up.'_

'_Why would I want to do that?'_

'_Why would you want to rule the Earth?'_

She found his memories and began looking through the files for date of the attack on New York.

'_Well, that's a gigantic mess,'_ he said, peering over her shoulder as she looked through the contents.

He was right, nothing from the time that he was under Loki's control was organised, but most of the memories were there. Whatever was happening now was not what like the mind control Loki had wielded.

* * *

Loki reclined on his bed and waited with glee for someone to come and fetch him, asking for his help. Who would it be? Barton? Stark? Most likely it would be Fury.

He was going to enjoy saying 'no'.

'_Don't be mean, you promised me you'd help.'_

'_I made no such promise, but I will help, eventually.'_

'_You just want them to grovel first?'_

'_Precisely.'_

'_You know, Loki, the people humans worship, are those who did good deeds. Jesus, Ghandi, the suffragettes. If you want Earth to love you, try inspiring them to do great things.'_

'_How tedious.' _

'_You don't get something for nothing in this life.'_

Their conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door.

'_Showtime.'_

'_Play nice, Loki.'_

'_I'm always nice.'_

He heard Lisa snort in his head.

Loki took his time walking to the door and wasn't in the least surprised to see Fury standing there.

"May I help you?" He said, his voice dripping with condescension.

"Yes, actually. Your friend Lisa said that you might be able to help us with something."

"Did she give you any reason why I might _want_ to help you?"

"I was hoping that as part of your rehabilitation, you would do it as a goodwill gesture."

Loki laughed. "Unfortunately, I bear no goodwill towards SHIELD."

"Then do it because I'm asking, nicely."

Loki considered the proud man before him. Fury probably wouldn't beg but Loki thought that he could probably provoke him a little more.

"Say please."

Fury took a moment to get his temper in check. "Please will you help us?"

After a long pause, Loki grinned. "Of course I will, I'd be happy to in fact."

'_Loki, stop being a dick.'_

"If you'll follow me."

* * *

As soon as Loki entered the room, Natasha and Clint grew defensive, crossing their arms over their chests.

Lisa could feel Loki's fear as he saw Bruce, but the smirk he gave showed no sign of fear.

'_Wow, you really don't betray your emotions, do you? I thought I was good but you, you're Oscar worthy.'_

'_Who is Oscar?'_

'_It's an acting award.' _

"Doctor Banner," Loki smiled at him. "Quite the rampage you went on, twenty one dead, over forty injured. I'm impressed."

"And if I was psychotic, I'm sure I'd appreciate that," Bruce answered. Thankfully, there was no smugness in his voice and if he remembered the beat down he had given Loki, he didn't show it.

'_How do you know about that?'_

'_I- I'll explain later, okay?'_

'_If you insist.'_

Lisa stepped towards him. "Loki, if I show you an image, can you use your magic to replicate it? Produce a photograph or something similar?"

"I can."

"Can I touch you?"

"Only if you're very very gentle with me." He smirked as she approached. _'You don't want them to know we're in constant telepathic contact. Why?'_

'_I don't trust them. If they decide I'm too powerful I worry about what they'll do to me.'_

She saw a flicker of compassion in his eyes.

Slowly, Lisa reached up and placed her hands either side of his face. It was the typical image of telepathy from TV and movies, ever since Spock's mind meld. Possibly even before then. It was a very intimate gesture though, especially considering that they had hardly said two civil words to each other before yesterday. He maintained eye contact with her, despite the oddness of the situation.

"You know, if you wanted to kiss me, you could have just said."

It was only because he said it aloud that she knew he was joking; if he wanted to spook her, he would have made the quip telepathically.

'_Are you about that?' _he asked.

'_Yes.'_ She closed her eyes because his baby blues were decidedly appealing, almost hypnotic. _'I take it you remember the image?' _

'_I do.'_

'_How long do we have to hold on, do you think? To make this believable?'_ she asked.

'_I have no idea. Why don't you see what the others are thinking?'_

'_Good idea.'_

'_You know, for a telepath, you are remarkably blinkered as to the uses of such a power.'_

She couldn't help the smile that tugged at the sides of her lips.

She caught Clint's thoughts, he hated that Loki was here, that they needed his help, that Lisa was so close to him right now and he had noticed her small smile, which translated into a brief surge of hatred for _her_.

She decided to focus on Fury's thoughts. His mind was odd, she had tried reading his mind before and while she could hear a lot of his thought, it was a little like they were edited, some parts were redacted, like on a document, or bleeped out, like profanity on television. What she did see was that he didn't like Loki but as yet, had been unable to find a way to kill him.

That thought shocked her and she gave a slight jerk.

"You all right?" Barton asked, stepping forward.

"Fine, turns out that Asgardian brains are a little harder to read than humans." _'Barton's having some very unchristian thoughts about you.'_

'_Yes, I can hear. I can't say I'm shocked.'_

'_You're hearing him through me?'_

'_Yes, I don't have telepathy.'_

'_If our minds keep getting closer, one day, I'm going to have trouble deciding whose thoughts are whose.'_

'_Mine will be the salacious ones.'_

'_Sure about that?'_ She imagined a nude Loki in a rather x-rated pose, then released her hold of his face as soon as she had thought of it, stepping away so the others hopefully wouldn't notice Loki's reaction, whatever it was.

What she hadn't noticed though, was that Loki's hands had found their way to her waist and his hold on her put rather a crimp in her plan to step away.

She looked down at his hands in surprise.

'_You know, you might think I'd notice when a mass murderer puts his hands on me.'_ She teased.

"Let her go!" Barton stepped closer.

She could feel that Loki had been about to release her until Barton spoke, then his grip became firm once again and he turned to Barton, a wolfish grin distorting his features.

"Make me."

The others in the room stepped forward, predicting trouble.

Barton drew a fist back and made to punch him but before he could swing, Loki grabbed his throat with his left hand, his right pulling Lisa to his side and holding her there.

It might have been kind of sweet if it wasn't such a possessive gesture.

"No one orders me around; I will let her go when _I_ want to, you pathetic fool."

In short order a number of weapon were aimed at them and Lisa's anxiety levels went through the roof. She suddenly heard Clint groan or something, and realised that Loki was choking the life from him.

He was going to kill Barton and while Stark and Bruce were hesitant to hurt Loki as long as Lisa was in his grip, Fury and Natasha were only moments from firing at him, the danger to Lisa be damned.

She flinched as Natasha fired but the bullet vanished. Fury fired his gun also, and Natasha emptied the rest of her clip. None of the bullets came anywhere close to hurting them though.

Clint was still gasping for air and turning a rather nasty shade of puce. Loki was going to kill him. Tears stung her eyes and although completely ineffective, she began to strike Loki with her fists.

"Let him go! Let him go! He was trying to protect _me_, not insult you!" Considering how choked up she was she didn't know if he could decipher her meaning.

Loki was glaring at Barton with a single minded determination, his featured screwed up with the effort of trying to kill him, which was odd for a superpowered being, but Lisa wasn't exactly in the state of mind to consider that point.

A moment later, she found herself on the floor beside Clint, while Loki was on the other side of the room, his fist buried in the wall.

"Clint?" Lisa tried to check on him but Natasha was faster, and Bruce took it upon himself to check on her, picking her up and depositing her on a bed. Stark joined him and Fury joined Natasha.

"Are you all right?" Bruce asked her.

"I'm fine, he didn't hurt me." Her hands trembled as she swiped at her eyes. "How is he?" She tried to look around him to see Barton.

Clint was gulping in air but he was alive and sitting up under his own steam. She watched as he was moved to a bed and Bruce left to check on him, while Stark comforted Lisa by waving a box of tissues before her. She took a few and tried to dry her face.

A few minutes later, Barton seemed mostly okay again and Lisa looked around to realise that Loki was gone.

"What the hell happened?" Fury turned to Lisa and demanded, as if it was her fault. Loki had obviously disappeared at some point during the aftermath.

"What happened?" Lisa was incredulous. "Your man threatened him, is what happened. I know you don't like him and in fact, you have good reason to hate him, but only a fool pokes a bear and expects no retaliation."

"So what, we're supposed to let him do whatever he wants, unchallenged?"

"No, but you can confront someone without throwing punches." She looked to Clint. "Why would you even try to hit someone like Loki? If that punch had connected, it would be your hand broken, not his face."

"I was trying to protect you," Clint explained in a rough voice.

"And he was about to let me go until you confronted him. A lot of what he does is designed to get a rise out of people and he's very good at finding which buttons to press. If he's going to stay here, you all need to stop rising to the bait."

"I think that maybe the question we need to be asking is, why did he stop?" Bruce interjected calmly.

"The man's got a point," Tony agreed. "Jesus on a Roid Rage isn't known for sparing people."

It took Lisa a beat but considering how obvious it should be, hiding the fact would look suspicious. "He stopped because of me."

Everyone turned to face her and she wished she'd kept her mouth quiet.

"You want to explain that, Goldilocks." Stark asked.

"It's the whole point of creating the bond between us, forcing him to feel my emotions in the hope he'll feel his own again."

"So you felt so appalled that he stopped?" Banner asked.

"I imagine I felt how all of you did, maybe with more helplessness thrown in; more fear perhaps, less anger."

"So all this time, we just needed to get Loki in touch with his feminine side?" Stark asked. "Cool."

"Yeah, liken female emotions to emasculation, good call, Tony. Not at all patronising or sexist."

"Whoa!" Stark held his hands up. "I'm sorry." He sounded anything but. "Please don't think badly of me. I say that because I'm assuming that if you want me dead, Loki can kill me."

"Everyone can kill, Tony. Not everyone can murder but everyone can kill and I'm not saying you deserve to die or anything but when you're being a wise-arse, it might be wise to remember that everyone has a tipping point."

"Wise-_arse_? I love it when chick insult me in a British accent. Gives the insults so much class. Say 'bugger off' for me."

"Oh, piss off, you wanker."

Stark looked blissful. "Oh, thank you."

Lisa stormed from the room but paused by door to the med bay when something caught her eye.

"I know you all hate him and honestly, I don't blame you for that, but he's not all bad." She held up a file that had an image on the front. It looked like a photograph and she had no idea how he had done it but she assumed magic was involved. "This is the image you wanted."

Steve Rogers entered then, and she wished he'd been around a few minutes previously as of all the Avengers, he was the diplomat. She handed him the file and went in search of Loki.

Steve looked around at the shell shocked people, Barton still recovering and pissed, Stark looking surprised and the giant hole Loki had left in the wall.

"What did I miss?"


	7. Chapter 7

AN: Happy Birthday to me! I am *cough* years old today, and 9 years sober! Some of you are probably familiar with this Confucius quote, "We all have two lives. The second one begins the day you realise you only have one." My second life began 9 years ago, and I haven't looked back since.

* * *

Norse proverb: No friend is he who but flatters.

**Chapter Seven**

Thanks to their link, Lisa didn't have to search the whole tower before checking the roof. Loki was on the upper level though, and Lisa could see no easy way to get up there. She was sure there was a way, she just didn't know it. Considering that Loki might be more than a little angry with her too, she also wasn't sure it would be sensible to join him.

_'If you're worried about me hurting you, why come up here?'_

She looked up and even from a distance, was captured by his gaze. _'I was worried about you.'_

_'Is it a habit for humans to take stupid risks with their fleeting lives?'_

She knew he was insulting her but he had just hit upon one of the greatest things about humanity.

_'Yeah, I suppose it is. For some people, doing something great is worth the risk, like climbing Everest or being the first to do anything. For others, it's a need for the rush that doing crazy things brings; adrenalin junkies and dare devils. For most of us though, there's always something or someone more important than us, that are worth risking our lives for.'_

With a flick of his wrist, she found herself floating up to him. Her pulse spiked. _'I think I just remembered why I don't like heights!'_

_'You aren't an adrenalin junkie then?'_

_'God no.'_

She reached out for him as she got close, and he laughed as he grabbed her hands and pulled her onto the higher level, even although he could just as easily have used his magic to manoeuvre her.

As soon as her feet were on solid ground, she laughed, her hand clutching her heart as she recovered.

_'So,'_ he asked. _'What would you risk your life for?'_

_'I would have thought that was obvious. I'm here, aren't I? You've already tried to kill me once, I was standing next to you not five minutes ago when they tried to shoot you. At his rate, I'll be lucky to make it five months, let alone years, but my sister's worth it.'_

_'If you're waiting for an apology, you'll be waiting a long time.'_

Lisa smiled._ 'Thanks for the warning, but I'd already figured that out.'_

_'So, what are you here for?'_

_'To see how you are. I thought you might be mad at me.'_

_'So you came to placate the beast?'_

_'No, I just don't believing in hiding from things. Problems should be confronted head on and frankly, if you're going to kill me, I'd rather you did it now; it's better than hiding for hours, waiting and wondering what's going to happen.'_

Loki laughed.

_'What?'_ she asked.

_'Nothing, I just find you entertaining, that's all.'_

_'Well, I'm so glad I could be of service.'_

Loki laughed again, then held his hand out, palm up. Lisa looked, wondering what he wanted, until a green shimmer solidified into a mobile phone.

_'What's this?'_

_'A cell phone. You can use it to call your family whenever you want.'_

_'They'll find it.'_

_'Trust me, they won't.'_

_'Thank you.'_ She grinned at him as she picked the phone up. _'I hope you can feel how much this means to me.' _

_'Unfortunately, I can.'_

Lisa ignored his sarcasm. _'Okay, so they're five hours ahead, which means… Dad should still be at work.'_

She walked a few paces away to give herself the illusion of privacy, and dialled her father's work number.

"ECHU."

She frowned, wondering why she was being redirected to reception when she had dialled her father's extension. "Can I speak to Tim Mason, please."

"One moment…" List could hear the woman typing into her computer. "I'm afraid I don't have a record of anyone by that name, do you know the extension?"

"Five four two."

Hold music came on for a few moments. "I'm sorry, that extension appears to be invalid. Can I put you through to someone else?"

"But he's worked for you for thirty years."

"Are you a friend or-"

"I'm his daughter. Can you check again, please, he's head of the History department?"

More key tapping.

"I'm sorry. Let me put you through to the faculty office, maybe someone there can help you."

"Okay." She waited until another woman picked up the phone.

"History department, Dawn speaking."

"Hi, I'm looking to contact Tim Mason."

"I'm sorry, he left."

"What do you mean, left? For the day?"

"No, he no longer works here."

"You're certain he's left, he isn't on holiday or sabbatical or something?"

"No, I'm sorry."

"Was he fired for taking so much time off?" Lisa was becoming indignant. "Because my sister was dying and he has tenure, and you can't do that to a tenured professor."

"No, he emailed his resignation a few weeks ago. To be honest, everyone here was shocked, and it's left us with a huge problem filling his schedule for this term."

That took the wind out of her sails. "Okay, thank you."

Terrified that her sister's condition had worsened, Lisa dialled their home phone number.

"The number you have dialled has not been recognised. Please hang up and try again. The number you have dialled-"

She hung up and tried again, with the same result. She dialled her father's mobile phone, only for it to go straight to voicemail. She was about to leave a message when Loki snatched the phone out of her hand and cut it off.

"Hey!"

_'I know you're suspicious, I can feel it. If you leave a message, SHIELD will have proof that you have a way to contact your family. Knowledge is power, don't show them your hand until you know what you're up against.'_

Her anger fled and she nodded her understanding.

Loki offered her the phone back but she pushed his hand away.

_'You'd better keep it; I can resist everything except temptation.'_

Loki smiled but it faded quickly. _'You're truly worried, aren't you?'_

_'They're the only family I've got.'_

_'When you picture them, all you see is a sister and father, where's your mother?'_

_'She's dead, both my mothers are.'_

_'Both?' _

_'I'm adopted. My birth parents were both addicts.'_

Lisa went to the edge of the deck and sat down with one leg either side of one of the railings.

_'You were taken away from them?' _Loki asked, coming to sit beside her.

_'No. I don't remember much about them, but I remember that my father had a terrible temper, from what I know now, I think he had a personality disorder. Anyway, he flipped out and stabbed me, my mum and my sister, then himself. Only I survived.'_

He realised that her quip about not wanting to hide for hours, waiting and wondering what's going to happen, wasn't just a quip

_'I think I've seen it,'_ Loki admitted. _'You dream about it, don't you?'_

She turned to him, shocked. _'No, not often and not for a long time. Since Asgard though, I've been dreaming of things about you. Are we swopping dreams?'_

Loki frowned. _'I don't know.' _

_'But it's got to be related to that bonding ceremony, which was magic and you're a magician, right?'_

_'I don't know!'_ he snapped. _'There are hundreds of types of magic across dozens of worlds. I never paid attention to bonding rituals as I had no interest in them and in case you didn't notice, I was blindsided with that damned ritual, then sent straight to Midgard. When exactly was I supposed to learn the intricacies?'_

_'In general terms then, what does it do?'_

_'The purpose is to bind to married people together, so they grow closer throughout the duration of their marriage. Beyond that, I don't know.'_

_'Maybe Thor will know. When will he get back?'_

_'I don't know. I gather we are leaving this evening, so before then.'_

_'Look, there's no need to get pissy with me, Loki, we're both in the same boat.'_

_'You and I are nothing alike, mortal.'_

_'Fine.' _She got up. _'I'll see you when you're ready to be a grown up again.'_

Suddenly she found herself pinned to the roof with Loki straddling her, his hand at her throat, although he wasn't holding hard enough to hurt her.

_'Don't you dare speak to me as if I am some wayward child! You have no idea what I've been through, you can't possibly comprehend the things I've seen, the things I've suffered!'_

_'But if I'm right, I do know, Loki, I live through your past every night. Your memories are becoming my memories too, and mine are becoming yours. I'm sorry for what you suffered, what was done to you.'_ She could feel tears stinging her eyes. _'I even understand your sense of betrayal at your family, they shouldn't have lied to you, they should have told you the truth and no matter how good their intentions, it was wrong.'_

_'You know nothing!'_

_'I've been living with your emotions and dreams for a while now, I know quite a lot about you. I know that's why you try not to feel. I know you feel guilty about your mother, you think you might have stopped it if you'd been free, and you hate that you told the Kursed the quickest way into the palace._ _I know that you aren't a monster, and I know that you hate yourself."_

_'I don't-' _

_'You do. And I know because I feel that way too.'_

Loki looked confused.

_'They call it survivor's guilt. I've had my therapy and I've come to terms with most of what happened that day but…'_

_'But?'_

_'I lied when I said I didn't have any more family. My grandmother, my birth mum's mum, still wants to see me. She has visitation rights and I had to see her twice a month when I was growing up. I know she loves seeing me, but all she ever wants to do is talk about my mum and biological sister. I don't want to remember them, it's painful and I want to move on, not cry every time I see her, then feel guilty because I'm the only one that didn't die, and I don't understand why I was spared. But I'm the only family she has left.'_

_'You feel guilty for not engaging in self-flagellation?_

_'I know, it isn't logical but that's how I feel.'_

_'You mortals, so naive.'_

_'Naive? Naive is believing in good and evil, Loki, like you do. That kind of basic binary belief system is childish. No one is all good and no one is all bad. Maybe you do come from a race of monsters, I would argue the truth of that but I can't deny the stories you were told as a child, but that doesn't make you evil any more than my father being a killer makes me a killer.'_

_'How do you know you're not?'_ Loki demanded_. 'How do you know that you won't wake up one day and slaughter your whole family, just like he did?'_

_'I don't, and I'd be lying if I said that didn't worry me but I know that my actions will be my responsibility. I want to understand though, more than anything, I want to know why. Why do you think my Thesis is about sociopaths and substance abuse?'_

Truthfully, he hadn't been interested enough in her back then to pay much attention.

_'Thanks!'_ she tried to glare but she knew that from these harsh words, a deeper understanding might come, and that made her smile. _'Anyway, we're already in each other's heads 24/7, so I think it's safe to say privacy is a thing of the past. Does it really matter if I see your memories too?'_

_'I wish I could kill you,'_ he said, his eyes shining with tears.

She thought that admission would upset her, but his honesty pleased her.

_'I know. Part of me wishes I could kill you.'_

_'Because of what I did to your planet?'_

_'No,'_ she reached up and cupped his face in her hands. _'Because you frighten me, and caring about you terrifies me.'_

_'You already know I can't hurt you.'_

_'Yeah, but what does it say about me that I...'_

Loki's grip on her throat loosened even more and his eyes roamed over her face, lingering on her lips.

_'And what does it say about me; you're nothing more than a pathetic mortal?'_

_'Excuse me, but I am an _exceptional_ mortal,' _she managed to tease.

Loki smirked and lowered his head fractionally, as if he was going to kiss her. She was more pleased by that idea than she should be.

_'Wait!'_

_'You're not going to try and tell me you don't want this?'_ he asked. _'I can feel your emotions, remember?'_

_'I do want it, but not with your hand around my throat.'_

Loki smirked. _'And what if I like it there?'_

_'Try me.'_

His smirk widened and he leaned down to kiss her again. His lips were millimetres from hers when suddenly, there was a sound like a bullhorn in his head and he reared back, clutching his head with his hands.

Lisa felt a stab of fear as she sat up and wondered if he would retaliate. Instead he turned to her and grinned.

_'I think things are about to get very interesting,'_ he told her.

Lisa got to her feet and they stared at each other for a beat, then rushed towards each other, meeting in the middle with a punishing kiss, both of them pouring their negative emotions into the kiss, using it to vent some steam. For Lisa it was mostly her worry over her family, for Loki it was boredom and although he would admit it, self-loathing. The kiss was not gentle or tender but it was passionate, and what they both needed.

Lisa's lips were probably going to be bruised but she didn't care, she needed this. Just as she was beginning to feel light headed, Loki ended the kiss.

_'You must remember to breath,'_ he teased her.

_'Sod breathing. Want to take this someplace more private?'_

_'We seem to be the only ones up here,'_ he reminded her.

_'Yeah, but one, I'm not an exhibitionist and two, this gravel hurts.'_

_'As you wish.'_

_'We go down separately,'_ she said. _'Meet me in my room. I don't want them knowing anything yet.'_

He might have thought himself her dirty little secret, but he could see that she only wanted to maintain her privacy to avoid scorn; she knew her own mind, she had had made an informed choice but wanted to avoid pointless lectures for as long as possible.

Lisa realised that this was not like her. She didn't put pillow cases on her head and pretend she was a bride, not even as a child but equally, she never entered a relationship without believing that there was a chance it would lead somewhere. So what the hell was she doing here? Hopefully it would be more than a one night stand but no matter how many times they had sex, it wasn't a relationship. How could it be, when he viewed mortals as inferiors?

Strangely, the idea that it would all end horribly didn't put her off, but it did make her determined to squeeze as much pleasure as possible from the encounters.

After all, she didn't intend to remain a nun for five years.

* * *

"Ugh. I hate you."

_'Something wrong?' _Loki asked. They were laying on her bed, one of her legs resting between his and her head on his shoulder. Loki was playing with her hair, which he had admitted a fascination with during one of their multiple bouts of sex.

'_You just ruined me for human men, you do realise that, right?"_

_'Do mortals not like women who sleep with Gods?'_

Lisa chuckled. '_Not at all, but they haven't had thousands of years to perfect their technique. Nothing will beat that. Ever. My love life is officially screwed.'_

Loki smiled. _'I wish I could say that I'm sorry.'_

_'Yeah, right. It's all right for you, you get to go back to Donald Trump-ville and bang thousand year old goddesses or something, while I'm stuck down here with men who can hardly tell the difference between a clitoris and a Cadillac.'_

_'Donald Trump-ville?'_

_'Your palace, it looks like a gold mine threw up on it.'_

Loki laughed. _'You mortals are endlessly amusing, you know.'_

_'Gee, thanks.'_

_'It was meant as a compliment,_' he explained, although he seemed amused by her sarcasm.

_'Right, and when I say that for a selfish, narcissistic, arrogant git, you're not too bad, I mean it as a compliment.'_

Her head bobbed on his chest as he chuckled. _'Well, I suppose I could pop back every few years and keep you satisfied.'_

_'Don't do me any favours,'_ she huffed. _'Besides, I have a rampant rabbit and I'm not afraid to use it.'_

_'A what?'_

_'Never mind.'_

_'Tell me.'_

_'No!'_

_'I am a god, you know, I will find out.'_

_'Oh yeah? How?'_ She raised her head from his shoulder, propping it up with a fist under her chin. _'How exactly are you going to do that?'_

Loki favoured her with a very smug grin. _'I'll tell Jane that you said she needed one.'_

Lisa gasped. _'You wouldn't!'_

_'I'm the god of mischief, of course I would.'_

Lisa considered that for a moment. _'Why Jane?'_

_'Because I can feel your embarrassment, and Jane is more prudish than Darcy.'_

_'Fine,'_ she sighed. _'It's a…' _She frowned and sat up, looking towards the door.

_'Prude,'_ Loki scoffed. _'If it helps, I already know what it is, I could see it in your head.'_

_'No, it's not that. Something's wrong.'_ The playfulness of their post coital banter was gone.

_'What kind of something?'_ Loki sat up beside her, growing serious just as quickly as she had.

_'Jane. She's been hurt.'_

_'How?'_

Rather than explain what she didn't know, Lisa preferred to focus her attention on digging through the Avenger's minds and discovering what happened to Jane, and she took Loki's consciousness with her. Unfortunately Fury's mind was as hard to read as ever. She instead looked into Steve Roger's mind, which was as neatly organised as a soldier's footlocker.

They discovered that Jane was in the hospital, unconscious, and Thor was nowhere to be found.

_'Thor would not leave her,'_ Loki asserted. _'Something must have happened to him.'_

_'Are you sure?' _

_'I know my brother; he gave up the throne for her, he would not leave her if she was hurt.'_

_'New York is a big place, maybe they just got separated and Jane was mugged or something.'_

_'My brother is a warrior, he knows how to find his prey and if he was parted from her, he would track her.' _

_'Okay, so what do you want to do?'_

_'We need to visit the hospital.'_ Loki got off the bed and Lisa scrambled around for her clothes.

Loki took her hand and she felt the sensation of teleportation.

_'Jesus, would you tell me before you do that?'_ Lisa demanded, as soon as the immediate danger of vomiting has passed.

_'Time is of the essence. Come.'_

_'But-' _Before she could say that's he was stark naked, she realised that she was wearing clothes and as Loki opened a door, she recognised that they were in a janitorial cupboard, and she was now being dragged into a hospital corridor. Loki was wearing a dark suit and tie, while she had on a black pantsuit.

Except for the scarf Loki was wearing, they looked like the _Men in Black_.

She would have said something, except he could already hear her thoughts and she had more pressing issues to think about.

"Hey, let go of me!" She kept tugging at the hand he held and although she knew she couldn't overpower him, she was hoping that the unwanted attention they were drawing might make him release her. "Stop, let me go!"

He rounded on her, his expression frightening. _'Shut up or I swear I will make your life a living hell.'_

She was tempted to retaliate but she could tell that he was actually worried.

_'Let go of me.' _She reiterated softly but firmly.

They both glared at each other, until Loki decided that being a decent person might get him more cooperation than dragging her around like a sack of potatoes.

_'Fine.'_ He threw her hand back at her and stormed off.

Well okay, not a decent person _per se_, but slightly less of a wanker.

Lisa sighed; he was a thousand year old demi-god for Christ's sake, she should not have to deal with this juvenile attitude. Still, she followed him, assuming that he needed her help or he wouldn't have brought her.

_'I need nothing from you.'_ He sounded snide.

_'Except etiquette lessons, apparently.'_

Loki approached the reception desk but Lisa kept her distance, thinking that with their matching outfits and contrasting hair, they looked like some weird ying and yang Bobbsey Twins or something.

"I'd like to enquire about the whereabouts of a Jane Foster," Loki very calmly said to the receptionist. "I understand she was brought in unconscious."

"Are you her emergency contact?"

_'Say yes,'_ Lisa advised.

Instead Loki ignored her, and because it was hard to tell the difference between his mind and hers these days, she felt as if she was hypnotising the receptionist. It was strange, not like her telepathy exactly, but similar in some ways and by catching the receptionist's eye, Loki was able to manipulate her emotions, relaxing her and engendering her to like and trust him.

"Of course, Sir, she's in room 511. Just take one of those elevators to five and turn left."

"Thank you."

Lisa wondered if she could adapt the technique and with her telepathic ability and practice, she was sure she could do something similar.

She joined Loki as he made his way to the elevators and they waited together, in silence. It was a good thing she didn't expect an apology, because she wasn't going to get one.

_'I am sorry.'_

Lisa's jaw dropped as she turned to stare at him. _'What?'_

_'I should have taken the time to explain my intentions.'_

_'Who are you and what have you done with Loki?'_

He smirked. The elevator arrived and they stepped onto it.

_'Give me your hand.' He told her._

_'Why?'_

_'Because I intend to make us invisible so we will not be interrupted as we visit Jane.'_

_'Freaky.'_ She took his hand anyway.

She could still see him so she assumed they weren't invisible yet, until a nurse else got on to the elevator at the third floor, heading up to ten, and he sighed when he realised that floor 5 has already been pressed.

"Damn kids," he muttered.

As the doors opened on Jane's floor, they carefully walk around the nurse and step into the hallway.

To the casual observer, it looked like any hospital ward but Lisa knew better. Some of the doctors and nurses were SHIELD agents, and they knew she was here.

One of the nurses at the desk actually seemed to be staring at her, her eyes darting from her to the computer screen in front of her, then back to Lisa.

_'They must have infra-red surveillance or something,'_ she told Loki. Except that they knew she was here, yet they didn't seem to notice Loki.

_'We'll worry about that later,'_ Loki said. _'Let's go.'_

Lisa swore the nurse's eyes actually followed them as they walk down the corridor to Jane's room. The door was closed and a SHIELD operative, dressed as a policeman, was guarding the door.

_'This will feel odd,'_ Loki said, then he steped towards the window. He passed straight through but Lisa is more hesitant, holding her free arm before her as she walked forward, just to make sure she wasn't going to hit her face on the wall or something, but she emerged the other side, unscathed.

There was a genuine nurse in the room with Jane, and a SHIELD agent disguised as a doctor.

Jane was lying on the bed, looking so small and fragile. She had so much life and energy, that sometimes it was hard to remember she's actually quite short and skinny.

She was hooked up to monitors for her pulse and oxygen levels, her head was bandaged and one half of her face was purple with bruising.

_'They've already treated her, so she must have been here a while,'_ Lisa thought.

_'What caused your anxiety back at the tower?'_

_'Fury. He came in and told the others about Jane and I heard their panicked thoughts.' _

_'So he was aware of this before the Avengers. Do you know when she was brought in?'_

_'I can try and sift through the nurse's thoughts before we leave.'_

_'Why the nurse, why not the doctor?'_

_'He's a SHIELD agent, and they seem to have some way to block my telepathy.'_

_'How so?'_

_'I don't know how to explain it. It's a bit like an old television, where you get a ghost image over what you're trying to watch, but there's layers and layers like that, which makes it almost impossible to sift through.'_

_'So you can see into their minds but finding what you want is hard?'_

_'Exactly. I've never figured out how they do it either.'_ Lisa stepped up to Jane's bedside. _'What could have done this to her?' _She wondered.

_'That's what I'm hoping you can find out.'_

Lisa slipped into Jane's head, Loki with her, as normal.

_'Listen.'_

_'It's very quiet,'_ Loki replied after a few moments.

_'She's obviously unconscious, that stops a lot of the background noise.'_

_'Is that bad?'_

_'Well it's not good but it doesn't have to be bad. I've entered the minds of a few unconscious people over the years, they all recovered. Of course, they weren't unconscious for long.' _She looked around the corridor they found themselves in. '_Let's try that way,'_ she suggested.

They drifted through Jane's mind until they found the processing area, which looked more than a little damaged. All around, tiny robots were working to correct and patch up the damage,

_'Is this a likeness of what has been done to her body?'_ Loki asked.

_'Mind and body, yeah, and I think the robots are a reflection of her immune system, attempting to stop the bleeding and heal her.'_

_'They don't seem to be working very quickly.'_

_'The human body generally doesn't heal very quickly. Broken bones can take up to six weeks to heal.'_

They moved on but outside her memory centre, Lisa was distracted by a massive hunk of rock that was coming through the ceiling, or what looked like the ceiling. She opened the closest door to see that the damage in there was like.

_'Jesus.'_

_'What is this?'_ Loki asked, sounding appalled by the damage around him.

_'The part of the frontal lobe that deals with reasoning and higher level cognition. Even if she heals enough to wake up, with this much damage, she won't be Jane any more, or at least, not the Jane we remember.'_

She couldn't believe it, Jane was just too… everything not to come back whole. Jane was like the girl in school who you wanted to hate because they were perfect and excelled at everything they turned their hand to, but they were just too nice to hate. The world would be a much worse place without her.

_'Bad things happen every day,'_ Loki snapped. _'The loss of one mortal, no matter how "good" you think she is, will have no discernable effect.'_

Lisa turned to him. She couldn't cry when she was in someone's head because the image she projected in there wasn't her body, just an image of her body and just like she didn't need to breath, she couldn't cry. Her pain was more than evident on her features though.

_'How can you say that? Thor will be devastated, to say nothing of Darcy and Erik'_

_'I warned him that mortals were fragile; compared to our lives, humans are but the blink of an eye. This day was always going to come.'_

_'Well good for you. Next time you see him, be sure to tell him "I told you so".' _She turned away in disgust.

_'You think I take pleasure in this?'_ Loki asked.

Lisa turned back. _'I don't think you take pleasure in anything. You're so frightened of feeling pain that you've buried your emotions as deeply as you can, but you can't sort the good from the bad. A man who can't feel pain is a man who can't feel pleasure either.' _

_'You know nothing!'_ he advanced at her.

_'I know that you can feel my sadness right now, and I know that's why you're so angry with me.'_

Loki turned away in disgust and Lisa took a moment to compose herself.

_'Can you help her?'_ Lisa asked, once they had both calmed down a little.

_'How?'_

_'Can you heal her, like you did for me?'_

_'Possibly. Believe it or not, I don't make a habit of healing mortals.'_

Despite herself, she smiled at his black humour.

_'Please try.'_

_'And what exactly is in this for me?'_

_'Good karma, good will? Thor, Jane and I will owe you big time and you can call those favours in at some point in the future. Or, you know, just the satisfaction of doing a good deed.'_

_'Satisfaction's not in my nature. Besides, why would there be any satisfaction in helping someone. In case you hadn't noticed, I'm a selfish creature.'_

_'No, you'd like to be a selfish creature, but you aren't, not deep down. And besides, all good deeds are ultimately selfish, because we derive pleasure from helping another.'_

_'You make an awful saleswoman.'_

Lisa sighed.

"We know you're in here, Lisa, show yourself."

Loki whipped around, wondering where the voice came from.

_'He's in the hospital room,'_ Lisa explained.

_'And he knows you're in the room.'_

_'Apparently.'_

_'But he doesn't know I'm here.'_

_'Well it wouldn't take a genius to figure it out.'_ Lisa said.

_'You stay in here, find her most recent memories, that should tell us what happened and where Thor is. I'll handle Fury.'_

_'You sure?'_

Loki nodded and faded from her sight.

_'You can still hear me, right?' she asked. _

_'Always.'_ He sounded longsuffering but knowing him as she did, that passed for humour in his world.

* * *

Loki watched as Fury scanned the room, looking from a tablet computer, to directly beside him and back.

Loki put a stasis spell on Fury and the other two mortals in the room, freezing them for a moment. They would be visible to others but would cease to have any effect on this reality. Essentially, they would appear to jump a minute or two forward in time. Since Loki didn't plan to be very long, he hoped that they wouldn't notice the difference. Just in case, he magically locked the door so no one else could enter and give the game away.

He approached Fury, determined to find out how it was that he could track Lisa so accurately, how he knew with certainty that she was here yet evidently, Loki was invisible to him.

Did they know that Lisa had left the tower the other night? Did they realise that he was with her?

Looking over Fury's shoulder, he saw a red dot on a screen.

GPS Tracking Device SHI011290-45/005

They had a tracking device in her, the fifth such one, if he was reading the '005' part of the code correctly.

Interesting.

Making his way back to Lisa, he closed his eyes and put his hands either side of her head. When he had healed her, he had focused on the hairline fractures in her wrists, now he was scanning her whole body, looking for any abnormalities.

She was unusually strong and fit for a mortal, her immune system was robust and everything about her seemed normal. She had a filling in her tooth, some scar tissue from various bumps and scrapes over the years, and the scars on her abdomen, where she had been stabbed as a child, but the wounds had healed surprisingly well. She must have had very talented doctors.

He could find nothing abnormal, until he realised that she only had one filling in her mouth. He didn't claim to be an expert on mortal dentistry but if someone's dental hygiene was poor enough to cause decay, they usually had more than one filling and if their dental hygiene was flawless, they wouldn't have any.

He smiled in triumph as he felt the electric field emanating from the tooth in question. A quick hand gesture squashed the divice and he took Lisa's hand, turning them both invisible once more, before removing the stasis field from Fury and his men.

"Where'd the signal go?" the SHIELD agent disguised as a doctor asked.

"I know you're in here and now I'm pretty sure that you have Loki with you too. Show yourselves." Fury ordered.

Loki ignored him and looked down at Jane, wondering how extensive the damage was.


	8. Chapter 8

Norse Proverb: Repay treachery with lies.

**Chapter Eight**

Lisa was vaguely aware of goings on outside Jane's mind but she wasn't paying them any attention. She had found Jane's memories but while her older archive was intact, her short term memories were damaged. If her mind were magically healed, then perhaps she might recover something but if Jane's body was left to heal itself, the memories would be lost forever.

She was just about to tell Loki that, which she knew would be the best argument she could make for him healing Jane, because he wanted her access to her memories, but before she could say anything, she saw the files begin to fix themselves. The bricks jumped back into walls, the bent filing cabinets straightened themselves, dents flattened out, the plaster and carpets reformed, almost appearing to grow back.

She watched in amazement until the only sign of trauma was the files left scattered on the floor. It would be up to Lisa to put those away correctly, or as best she could.

'_Loki, I… Thank you. Thank you so much.' _

He didn't answer and she realised that she couldn't feel him any more. She retreated to her own mind.

Blinking her eyes against the harsh florescent lights, she looked around. Fury was gaping at her, the nurse looked stunned and the SHIELD agent held a gun on her.

Well, she knew she wasn't invisible any more but it wasn't until she looked down that she realised why. Loki was on the floor.

Lisa got down on her knees and took his hand as she entered his mind.

'_Hey, you here? Loki?'_

This was the first time she had ever entered his mind and it was unlike any other she had been in, using Asgardian architecture.

'_Loki, what happened? Are you okay?'_

Nothing. Lisa began to drift through his mind. He didn't have rooms in his mind, he had a palace and suites.

She drifted around, calling his name but receiving no reply. She hesitated when she came to a corridor that was incongruous with the rest of the mind-scape. No gold and gilt here, just damp rocks with mould, algae and slime growing on them. The doors were also made of rock, but closed with huge chains that would not look out of place on a ship's anchor, and massive padlocks, the size of her head, holding the chains closed.

She didn't need to know what was down here, it was his memories of the Chitauri and the Other. She had seen glimpses in her dreams but she didn't know the full story of what they did to him and while she desperately wanted to find out, she wasn't sure that she could live with committing such a gross invasion of privacy.

'_Lisa.'_ He appeared beside her.

She jumped. _'Must you keep doing that? I'm going to put a bell on you so you can never sneak up on me again!'_

He smiled.

'_Are you awake now?'_ she asked.

'_I am but only in here, I can't be out there for a while longer.'_

'_Why not? You really worried me.' _She knew he would be able to feel her concern.

'_You are aware of the conservation of energy principle in physics, which states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed?'_

Lisa nodded.

'_Magic is just another form of energy. You've seen how much I eat-'_

'_Actually no, you never joined us for dinner.'_

'_Well you have seen Thor, as you migth say, eat for England, correct?'_

She smiled at the use of a saying from her home. _'So you're telling me you eat like Thor? If that's true, how are you not as big as a house?'_

'_Because I expend that energy on Magic. Thor does too; wielding Mjolnir, a hammer forged in the heart of a dying star, requires a lot of energy, magical energy.'_

'_So can he do spells?'_

'_Not many, he doesn't have the talent to manipulate the forces of magic, as I do. Healing Jane has exhausted me for a time.' _

'_Can't you suck the energy from the atmosphere, or the sun like Superman or something?'_

'_Unfortunately, that ability was taken from me. The only energy I can summon now, is my own. Healing requires a lot of power, far more so than teleporting, and I must recover for a short time.'_

'_But you're just sleeping, right? You will wake up again?'_

'_You know, if you keep this up, I might almost think you care.'_

'_I do care,'_ she admitted. _'But don't worry, I don't expect you to say the same.'_

He frowned.

'_I'd better get out there and talk to Fury.' _Lisa said, to fill the uncomfortable silence.

'_Then you should know that he put a tracking device your tooth.'_

'_What?'_

'_That's how he knew you were here, you've been tagged and branded, like cattle.'_

'_I… God, I hate that guy.' _She seethed._ 'See you soon?'_

'_Bring me with you. Now I'm awake, I want to know what's going on around me, even if I do have to live vicariously through your mind.'_

'_Okay, and thank you, Loki.'_

'_What for?'_

'_Healing Jane. I didn't realise it was dangerous for you.'_

'_Hardly dangerous, just taxing.'_ Loki favoured her with a small smile and after a quick kiss, Lisa left his mind. She wasn't a hundred percent sure she could bring anyone else into her mind but she imagined keeping a hold of his hand as she returned to her own head and sure enough, he was beside her as she appeared in her mind palace.

'_Make yourself at home,_' she told him with a quick kiss. _'And if you can steal some energy from me to help you, do it.'_

She opened her eyes and looked up at Fury.

"Care to explain what you're doing here, Miss Mason?" Fury asked.

She looked to Loki, and moved him into a more comfortable position, before she got to her feet and glared at Fury.

"Sure, just as soon as you explain why you put a GPS chip in my tooth."

Fury didn't even blink. "You're on the Index and SHIELD has to monitor people on that list."

"I had that tooth filled when I was a child, so long ago that I don't even remember it being done, but I do remember the filling needing to be changed a few times. What, were you putting in bigger and better chips or something?"

"We need to monitor potential threats, and a class five psychic _is_ a threat."

"I would believe you, except that my gift didn't materialise until I was twelve. Is SHIELD clairvoyant now too?"

'_Atta girl!'_ Loki praised.

"What aren't you telling me?" Lisa demanded.

"I know this is hard to accept but we don't mean you any harm, Lisa. The truth is, your parents had powers and were both on the index. The children of such people often have their own gifts."

"So you were watching my parents?"

"Yes."

"So, are you just the most incompetent organisation ever, or did you stand by and watch as my father slaughtered my family?"

"If we had known what your father was going to do, we would have stopped him, I swear."

She wished that she could read his mind and see the truth for herself. She wanted to believe him, but she didn't.

"What were my parents' gifts?" she asked.

"That's classified."

Lisa gave a mirthless laugh. "Of course it is. You ask me to believe you, to trust you, but you never return the favour and can't understand why people distrust _you_. You may consider me a threat but when have I ever given you reason to doubt me? The worst thing I've ever done was shoplifting when I was a teenager but sure, put me on your bullshit mutant terrorist watch list, and waste money watching a nobody who just wants a quiet life."

"If you're a nobody who wants a quiet life, what are you doing here?"

"Jane is my friend but I only know her because YOU dragged me into this world. I was perfectly happy with my life, working and helping people. You came to me and asked me to do this so if my being here worries you, maybe you need to consider if your 'threats' aren't in fact self-fulfilling prophecies."

"We didn't make you go behind SHIELD's back to creep in here."

"No you didn't, but you also haven't given me a single reason to ever trust you, especially with the fate of someone I care about."

"Did you heal her?" Fury nodded to Jane, who's visible injuries looked almost healed, only a little yellowing bruising remained.

Lisa was speechless for a moment. "No! Why would you even think that?"

"That is a very good question."

Lisa looked down to see Loki was awake and trying to stand. She helped him to his feet.

"Loki." Fury nodded to him.

"Tell me," Loki said in a deceptively calm voice. "When you have a demi-god in the room, why would you assume that a human telepath had the ability to heal someone?"

"You were unconscious, we thought Miss Mason may have injured you in some way."

"Really? You believe that a solitary mortal has the power to defeat me? Even your team of Avengers couldn't hurt me much, yet you believe one woman can. Why is that?"

"Look…"

'_To be fair,' _Lisa said, not interested in listening to Fury's excuses,_ 'I probably could do some real damage inside your head.'_

'_I think it best we don't mention how powerful you are. Trusting SHIELD is like trusting a wolf to look after your children.'_

'_So we tell them what we need to and nothing more.'_

'_Precisely.' _Loki agreed.

"All this is beside the point," Loki said aloud. "I brought Lisa here to look into Jane's mind."

"And why do you care so much about your brother's girlfriend?" Fury asked.

"I don't particularly, but Thor would not willingly leave her, especially not when she was injured. It's out of character and for that reason, it troubles me. Knowing how much you and your organisation distrusts me however, I didn't think you would allow me access to Jane, so I employed covert methods."

Fury regarded him for a moment. "And what did you find?"

"Nothing yet. Jane's mind was too damaged." Loki explained.

"Is that why you healed her?"

Lisa wasn't exactly sure why he healed her, she hadn't asked him to, she hadn't had a chance to share that information with him when she noticed the first signs of healing. Was he looking out for his brother?

According to Jane, Loki had protected her from the dark elves on Svartalfheim, but Lisa had never asked Loki about it. Getting revenge on the Dark Elves didn't include saving Thor's girlfriend, so had he done it only to honour his side of the agreement, or was there another reason?

"You think I would help a mortal out of the goodness of my heart?" Answering Fury, Loki looked thoroughly amused by the idea.

Lisa didn't believe him. Protecting Jane while Thor tried to destroy the Aether was part of their plan but saving her from the black hole grenade, an action that meant _he_ was almost swallowed by the singularity in her place, that had been his choice. He could have left Jane to die knowing that he had fulfilled his part of the bargain.

"Now that she's mostly healed, let me try again," Lisa said to Fury.

Fury was silent for a long time but the truth was he needed her, and they all knew it. Finally, he nodded.

"It'll take some time. While Loki healed the physical damage, I have to sort through and make sense of her memories."

"Take all the time you need," Fury answered. "But if I see any sign's that Jane is in distress, I will stop you."

"Why do you distrust me so much?"

"You and Loki have become very close very quickly. That makes me suspicious."

'_Bollocks,' _she thought.

'_Your language is incredibly crass at times, but endlessly entertaining.'_

'_Shut up and help me tidy up her mind.'_

Lisa closed her eyes entered Jane's head. She already knew where they needed to be, so she and Loki appeared among her memory files.

'_You know, you really do have to give up these romantic notions about me,' _Loki said._ 'There is nothing noble or honourable about me. I protected Jane from the elves so that I could better sell my brother the story of my untimely death, and let him think we had healed the rift between us, at least somewhat.'_

Lisa sat down to begin sorting through Jane's memories. She wasn't buying Loki's bullshit excuses either. _'Why? Why risk your life for a story?'_

'_Because if Thor had closure, he wouldn't think too much about my death. If he still believed that the rift between us wasn't healed, he would have had regrets and would think back to that day. I couldn't risk that.'_

'_Whatever.'_

'_You disbelieve me?'_

'_You like to think that you're evil incarnate, but you're not.'_

'_Your idealistic notions of me are interesting, but inaccurate.'_

'_You forget, your memories are becoming mine," _she reminded him._ 'I remember you plotting to ruin Thor's coronation. You didn't think he would run off to start a war with the Frost Giants, you even told a guard so that he would be stopped and tried to get Heimdall to refuse you passage. You felt awful when Thor was banished. You felt guilty when Odin fell into the Odinsleep because you pushed him too far but even as angry as you had every right to be, you didn't kill him. He's as helpless as a baby during the Odinsleep, you could have let the Frost Giants kill him, then killed them and still been a hero. After you battled the Dark Elves and forced Odin to sleep, you kept him in stasis rather than killing him. You must have known that as long as Odin lived, he would find a way to break your spell eventually, but you still didn't kill him, because you aren't evil.'_

'_Tell yourself whatever you need to, mortal, it matters little to me.'_

'_I think it matters a great deal to you, Loki. You want people to think you're evil so they won't care about you because if they do, _you_ might have to start caring again, and you can't risk that.'_

'_You know nothing!'_ Loki suddenly yelled.

Lisa sighed. _'I know you need to refuel. You should do that teleporting-slash-astral projection thing, go get yourself some food.'_

'_Why? Do you feel guilty that my healing Jane has weakened me?'_

Lisa stood up and spun to face him. _'No! I think you did a nice thing and whatever excuses you tell yourself as to why you did it, I appreciate it. I also feel awful that you're weakened not because you did this for me, but because I care about you and yes, I know, more fool me, but there is it. So go and take care of yourself because I hate to see you at less than your best. Now bugger off and leave me to get on with this.'_

Loki's image faded and Lisa sighed.

'_You okay?'_

Lisa spun around to see Jane standing in the doorway.

'_You're awake!' _She threw her arms around Jane and hugged her tightly. _'You looked in such a state, I was so worried about you.'_

'_Thank you.'_ Jane hugged her back. _'I'm kind of confused though. I heard yelling and followed the voices but, where are we?'_

'_We're in your mind,'_ Lisa explained, pulling away. _'I'm actually just trying to sort through your memories so we can figure out what happened to you.'_

'_Can I help?'_

'_It's your mind,'_ Lisa smiled. _'In fact, if you want me out of your private memories, I can leave it to you.'_

'_No, I think some help would be good, thanks.'_

Both women sat back on the floor to sort through the memories.

'_So, did I hear that Loki healed me?' _Jane asked.

'_Yeah. He's trying to say it's only because you needed healing before we could sort through your memories but the truth is, I think he did it for Thor.'_

'_Really? I saw him try to kill his brother.'_

'_How much do you know about Loki?'_

'_I know he's adopted and he hates Thor, that's about it.'_

So Lisa gave Jane the abridged version of events. How his real parents left him to die, how he had been lied to about his race, while that race was vilified and regarded as monsters in Asgard. She explained how he had been raised to believe that he could be king, but how Odin had always favoured Thor, for reasons that Loki couldn't understand. She explained the little she knew about his exile, and how coming to Earth was his only hope of escape from the underworld he had landed in.

'_What happened to him while he was gone?'_ Jane asked.

'_I don't know. As well as sharing emotions, the bonding ritual we went through seems to make us share our memories too, but I've only seen glimpses of that place in nightmares. Loki keeps those experiences locked up tight in his mind, so that he never has to remember them. Still you can't repress things forever, they always find their way out in the end.'_

'_So it's bad?'_

Lisa looked up. _'I think it was, quite literally, a living hell and more than that, he's frightened.'_

'_Frightened of what?'_

'_Frightened they'll find him because he didn't succeed in conquering Earth and keeping the portal open.' _

'_What will they do to him?'_

'_I don't know. I do know that Loki isn't a coward and I know that he's endured more physical pain than I can imagine. For him to be frightened, what they have planned has to be more than just horrific.'_

'_Wow. I actually kind of feel sorry for him now.'_

Lisa smiled. _'Don't let him hear you say that.'_

They worked in silence for a few minutes, each lost in their own thoughts.

'_This is new,'_ Jane said, handing a photograph to Lisa.

'_I don't recognise anything here,_' she said.

'_I do, I was introducing Thor to the concept of pizza, that's an Italian restaurant in Little Italy.'_

'_You went there today?'_

'_I guess. It's the last thing I can remember.'_

'_Where did you find it? It makes sense that your other memories of today would be nearby.'_

They both begin to dig through the area where that photograph was found.

'_This is earlier, we went to the Statue of Liberty,'_ Jane said.

'_I have another one from there. And this looks like the restaurant again.'_

Suddenly Jane gasped.

'_What?'_ Lisa looked over Jane's shoulder at the image she was holding. It was Thor, looking very unlike Thor.

Thanks to her now having a lot of Loki's memories, Lisa knew a lot about Thor; she knew how he looked when he was happy, when he was sad, when he was fighting and when he was worried, to name but a few. This expression however, was completely alien to her.

'_He looks more like the Hulk,'_ Lisa says without thinking.

'_He did this to me,'_ Jane says, her voice quivering.

'_Did what?'_

'_Hurt me. Thor is the one who hurt me.'_

Had she said Loki, Lisa might have believed it. As much as she was coming to care for the bastard, he was capable of cruelty. Had Jane said Fury had done this, Lisa would not be in the least surprised. Had she pointed the finger at Stark, Lisa would be thinking it might have been an accident or misunderstanding.

Thor though? Lisa could not picture him hurting Jane under any circumstance, not even accidentally. And she especially couldn't picture him with this rage filled expression. Nonetheless, it was real. Or it was real to Jane. It was possible that the memory was false or wrongly remembered, but Lisa doubted it.

Jane was scrambling around on the floor once more, desperate to find more memory fragments that could fill in the pieces.

'_What's wrong?'_ Loki's image appeared beside them.

'_Are you all right?_' Lisa asked, turning to him.

'_Almost fully recovered,'_ he assured her.

Lisa threw her arms around him and held him tightly. _'Thank god.'_

Loki appeared stupefied by her behaviour. Nonetheless, he patted her back awkwardly.

'_Now you are assured that I have no ill effects from earlier, tell me what's wrong? You looked upset when I came returned.'_

Lisa stepped away and handed him the picture of Thor's rage face. _'Jane says Thor is the one who hurt her.'_

Evidently, Loki was as surprised by the revelation as Lisa had been, possibly more so.

She had never known him to be lost for words before.


	9. Chapter 9

AN: A little something to cheer up a miserable Monday.

* * *

Norse Proverb: The brave man well shall fight and win, though dull his blade may be.

**Chapter Nine**

"What's he doing here?" Stark demanded as Loki entered, with Fury, Lisa and Jane in tow

"I'm here to find my brother," Loki answered, his voice daring Stark to take issue with it.

"How do we know it wasn't you putting ideas in Jane's head, or creating one of your illusions, I hear you're good at those."

"Stark," Jane gave him a warning look. "He saved my life."

"Thor really did this to you?" Stark asked, looking through the admission report and the pictures SHIELD had taken at the hospital, prior to Loki healing her.

"I don't think he meant to hurt me," Jane tried to explain.

"Maybe you could tell us what, _exactly_, happened?" Banner suggested.

"I still don't really know," Jane admitted. She had regained most of her memories, she just couldn't make much sense of the events. "We went into a little Italian restaurant, sat down, ordered drinks. We were ordering our main courses and Thor just seemed to… I don't know, zone out. I called his name but he didn't react, then he got up to walk out. I sort of walked backwards, trying to get him to talk to me but he wouldn't. I stopped when we got to the door and he just… brushed me aside."

"He did all that damage just pushing you out of the way?" Natasha asked.

"The police report says he threw you into a wall," Steve noted.

"Thor's strength is on a par with your Hulk," Loki explained. With his index finger and thumb, he picked up a ceramic coffee cup that Steve had been drinking from. "We all learn to be careful as children because an unthinking action-" the coffee cup shattered, "-can do a lot of damage."

Lisa shuddered. _'I'm suddenly thinking that rough sex wasn't a very good idea.'_

_'You needn't worry, I haven't broken a paramour yet.'_

_'Well gee, that makes me feel all warm and snuggly inside.'_

Loki gave a mental chuckle.

"I still don't think we can trust Russell Brand here."

"We have to keep cool heads about this," Steve said. "Loki might be able to help us."

"Thor is not in his right mind," Loki explained.

"We already know you want Thor dead, so why should we believe you?" Clint asked.

Loki stood up to his full height, which was actually pretty intimidating. "Because Thor is my brother and if anyone is going to kill him, it will be me. As for his mental state, have none of you noticed Mjolnir?"

The avengers looked to the coat hooks by the door, where Thor had hung his hammer.

"Thor rarely goes anywhere without that thing and he can summon it at will. The problem is, Mjolnir can only be summoned by someone worthy of its power, so for Thor not to be able to call the hammer, he must not be in his right mind."

"So what does that mean?" Banner asked. "He's being possessed?"

"That or something very similar," Loki agreed. "That would also explain why _you_ have no memories of your rampages, because someone else was in control of your body."

"If that's true, why did they let Bruce go?" Steve asked.

"Maybe Thor was the real target all along," Natasha suggested.

"Thor and I don't exactly get mistaken for each other much," Bruce added.

"No, but you're the reason Thor is in New York," Steve noted. "Maybe you were a lure, not a case of mistaken identity."

"Or perhaps the person who is possessing people cannot maintain his hold for long," Loki suggested. He began to pace the room as he considered the options. "The power that needs to be channelled for possession is enormous."

"How enormous?" Stark asked.

"Put it this way, the control I exerted was more like hypnosis than possession, and I needed the power of the tesseract just to do that."

"I don't suppose you happen to know where the tesseract is right now?" Stark asked. "Or any other massive power sources?"

"The tesseract is protected on Asgard. As for other similar power sources, there are six infinity stones in all, the Tesseract is only one."

Stark whistles. "You wouldn't happen to know where we can find the others, would you?"

"Only one; most have been lost over the ages."

"That still doesn't explain why whatever was using me, let me go," Bruce spoke up.

"Perhaps you fought him for control," Loki answered. "We could also be wrong about possession, I'd wager that it is a _similar_ phenomenon, but we have far too little information to draw firm conclusions."

"So what do we know?" Fury said, stepping up to the table.

"So Reindeer Games gets to stay?" Stark asked.

"You're a fool if you think you can stop me," Loki said menacingly. "Thor is my brother and I will not rest until he whatever force is controlling him is vanquished."

"How do we know you aren't doing this to him?" Barton asked.

"You don't, but I have little to gain by possessing him. Besides, Banner was being controlled while we were miles away, and possession usually requires proximity."

"Says you," Stark answered.

"Enough!" Fury yelled. "For the time being, Loki stays if for no other reason than that I want to keep an eye on him. Romanoff, what intel do we have?"

"Nothing," she answered. "Just like Dr Banner in between rampages, Thor has fallen off the radar. We do have some CCTV footage of him leaving the restaurant, which confirms Jane's story, and we're running facial recognition through every camera feed we can get our hands on. No hits yet."

Lisa listened quietly as they debated the best course of action but this was more like a family arguing than a team of soldiers, with everyone yelling and talking over each other. Were the stakes not so high, it might have been amusing to watch.

The discussion ended abruptly when Thor crashed into the room via the window, and everyone was so shocked that he nearly left with Stark.

To everyone's surprise, it was Loki who saved him, his black suit morphing to his armour as he charged his brother, Thor lost his grip on Stark and toppled out of the window with Loki.

Everyone rushed to see what would happen and while, without Mjolnir, it was inevitable that they would hit the pavement, everyone flinched, even Fury, who was calling in backup.

Stark called one of his Iron Man suits and within sixty seconds, was flying out of the window to join the fray, despite warnings not to.

Fighting hand to hand, Loki and Thor seemed fairly evenly matched and what Loki lacked in raw power, he made up for with magical tricks.

Lisa was very well aware of his earlier revelation however, that his magic was now limited due to the fact that he couldn't harness external energy. Stark helped to provided a distraction however and while he was no match for Thor, his suit protected him and allowed him to get a few good blows in.

Hawkeye got his bow and shot a zip line that he, Natasha and Steve slid down to get them to the ground faster.

In light of his recent rampages, Banner decided not to get involved. Lisa could hear his thoughts; knowing how destructive the Hulk was, he didn't want to unleash it unless absolutely necessary, however, if the others couldn't stop Thor, he intended to jump from the smashed window, knowing that by the time he hit the ground, the Hulk would have taken over.

Jane clung to Lisa's arm as they watched, and Lisa tried to enter Thor's head. If he was being possessed, she hoped to find and awaken his consciousness, but it wasn't proving very easy. It was almost as if his consciousness was no longer there.

If it wasn't already clear, Thor soon made it abundantly obvious that Stark was his target.

The fight soon moved out of visual range but Lisa was able to follow it via Loki's mind and see what he saw. She felt each blow Thor landed on him, she heard Loki pleading with Thor to wake up and fight this. At the same time, Lisa was still hunting Thor's mind, desperately searching for him.

She had never been in two minds at once before (she didn't count her own) but she was soon able to adapt to it by imagining that she was media stacking and multi-tasking.

Thor quickly took Steve and Natasha out, Clint only survived longer thanks to firing his arrows from a distance, but a partial building collapse soon took him out of the game.

Stark tried to get them to safety but since Thor was intent on him, he had to leave them, so Loki got them to the assembled SHIELD paramedics, while Stark distracted Thor. SHIELD's aircraft were hovering but until the pedestrians were out of harm's way, they were unable to open fire.

Stark led Thor to Central Park, hoping to minimise casualties, and the fight resumed there but at least they were just gouging giant holes in the grass here, not toppling buildings. Loki kept urging Stark to get behind him but Tony wouldn't listen, obviously, and Loki was quickly growing tired.

* * *

Jane, Fury, Banner and Lisa were watching the feeds from the SHIELD aircraft, which were being channelled to screens in Stark's boardroom.

Suddenly, Lisa had the insane thought to see if she could contact Heimdall. Thor was Asgardian after all, his rampage was their responsibility, especially since their race was far less breakable than humans. Of course, Heimdall wasn't just the other side of the city, he was the other side of the universe, so this was unlikely to work. Still, if he really could see everyone in the universe, then maybe he'd see her and teleport Thor home. She called on Loki's memories and turning her face to the sky, mentally called out for him.

She was positively shocked to hear his voice in her mind.

'_Heimdall? Is that you?'_

'_It is. Who is this?'_

'_I'm Lisa, the Earthling- I mean, the mortal who came to Asgard a few weeks ago. I'm friends with Loki and Thor.'_

'_The mortal who was tied to Loki; I remember you. You are far more powerful than I imagined, to be able to reach out to me.'_

'_Or desperate. Thor is on a rampage and Loki can't stop him.'_

'_Thor?'_

'_Yes! I know it's weird but I think something is controlling him. Can't you see? I thought you were able to see everyone.'_

'_I have been unable to see Thor or Loki for three days now.'_

'_Well, can you send someone to help? Loki's getting his arse handed to him and I think Thor might kill him if we can't stop him soon.'_

'_I am not getting my 'arse' handed to me!'_

'_Oh, Loki, shut up! I'm trying to help you, here! Without your full magic, you're no match for Thor. Heimdall, please, if you can send anyone to help, please do.'_

'_The bifrost is receiving interference and is unsafe to use at the moment.'_

'_Isn't there anything?'_

'_Nothing immediate but I will see what can be done.'_

It was better than nothing and considering she hadn't expected to be able to reach him, more than she hoped for.

'_Thank you for trying.' _She hadn't expected Loki to thank her and to be honest, it frightened her a little. _'Don't give up on me yet, my dear.'_

_'I'll always bet on you, Loki.'_

* * *

Tony went down and didn't get up and as Thor made his way to him, Loki used his magic to shroud the entire park in smoke and slinging Tony over his shoulder, teleported him to safety, leaving an astral projection of himself and Iron Man to fool Thor. He hid Tony body behind a playground swing set, then returned for a final confrontation with Thor.

"I know you're in there, Brother. I know this isn't your doing but you have to fight this."

Thor didn't answer. He hadn't said a single word, so Loki wasn't exactly expecting him to start now.

Thor backhanded two astral projections of Loki out of existence and Lisa could feel that Loki was almost out of magic now. He was literally running on fumes.

"Please, Brother, don't do this."

Loki blocked the first punch but the second send him flying thirty feet.

"No," he whispered, the edges of his vision growing dark. Nevertheless, he struggled to his feet, trying to stagger after Thor.

'_Loki, stop, you're killing yourself.'_

'_I can't let him take Stark. If he succeeds, we may never see Thor again.'_

'_And if you die, you'll never see him again.' _

'_I don't have a choice.'_ His voice begged her to understand. _'He's my brother.'_

* * *

She was crying, terrified that she was going to lose him. Sure, he was an arse, a dickhead and a bastard, but he was her arse, dickhead and bastard, and she wasn't ready to lose him, not that he was ever hers, he was barely just a friend really, but she wasn't ready to say goodbye, not-

Lisa was almost blown out of the window by the wind created by Mjolnir flying off the coat hooks.

Fighting Thor without his hammer had been difficult enough, now that Thor had Mjolnir, Loki was doomed.

Lisa fell to her knees. It was over.

* * *

Loki had often wondered about death, you couldn't be a warrior and not think about it from time to time. In recent years, there were times he had prayed for death, but death was not so obliging.

Then he simply didn't care for a while. Locked in a dungeon without even his mother to visit him this time, he would wither away down there, long before he died. Win, lose; live, die, what did it matter? Any end to the tedium was welcomed, and he did long to see Frigga again, to tell her he was sorry.

Only recently had be begun to feel hope once more, to think that perhaps he could move on. He didn't know what form this 'moving on' might take, but he was open to any possibilities that might arise.

And now that he was about to die, it was too soon. Even just another few hours might have been enough to get his brother back, then he could die, safe in the knowledge that Thor would take care of everyone Loki cared about (although that was a pitifully short list of people).

As he lay there, he could feel his ribs protesting with each breath, so it was almost a relief when his chest fell and didn't rise again. Not long now.

Suddenly his arm rose of its own volition and pain shooting through it was unlike anything he had ever felt before. The lightning strike caused him to scream and it took a moment for him to realise that he wasn't being struck by lightning, he was absorbing the lightning, through Mjolnir.

He could literally feel the power course through his veins. He could feel his ribs and the bones in his arm mending, his shoulder popping back into its socket as the tissues around it healed. His veins healed over, stopping the internal bleeding and the blood pooled in his abdominal cavity was reabsorbed.

He didn't so much get to his feet, as he was dragged to his feet by Mjolnir.

He was holding Thor's hammer, wielding it in fact, and that was so shocking that he almost forgot why he nearly died in the first place.

Thor.

Teleporting between Thor and the Iron Man, Loki held a warning hand up.

"Please, Thor, don't."

Thor ignored him so drawing on the power of Mjolnir, Loki tried a stasis spell. It took much more energy to freeze an Asguardian than a mortal, but he felt as if Mjolnir might just give him enough power to do so, and he was right. Thor stopped in his tracks, suspended outside of time.

Loki had no idea how long the spell would last but he did know that Thor would break it eventually, so discretion being the better part of valour, he took his chance and retrieved Stark's body, hoping that the billionaire wasn't beyond help.

Thor flew by hurling Mjolnir and letting the momentum pull him along but not only was that too crude for Loki, such jarring movement could further harm the mortal Iron Man, so Loki called upon Mjolnir's power to teleport them back to the tower.

Police cars and ambulances lined the streets and Loki stopped near the tower, so that Stark's friends would be around to see that he was all right.

Some pedestrians fled from him as he rematerialized, either frightened by a man appearing from nowhere, or probably fearing that he was to blame for this latest catastrophe and as untrue as that was, he couldn't blame them. Besides, it was his own fault for wearing the same armour, it wasn't exactly low key but at least he wasn't wearing the helmet and cape, they were the most distinctive aspects of his armour.

After handing Stark off to the paramedics, he returned to the park, but Thor was gone.

He walked back to the tower wondering what had happened to Thor. Clearly his brother was not himself but why? Who had done this?

He was almost back at the tower when a hand struck his cheek, and he chided himself for not paying better attention.

"I hate you!" Lisa yelled. "How could you just give in and die? Did you even spare a thought for what that would do to me? Actually being in your head as you died? You selfish, conceited, arrogant prick!"

She began crying and he pulled her into his arms, surprised when she threw her arms around him and clung on for dear life.

They were attracting a crowd but Loki didn't care about the opinions of mortals. Well, most mortals.

"I had to," he tried to explain to Lisa. "Thor is not himself and his power in the wrong hands could devastate worlds; if I didn't do my all to stop him, that blood would be on my hands too. I already have too much."

"Oh, so now you grow a conscience. Your timing sucks, Loki!"

Captain America approached from the crowd, looking battered but alive.

"How is Stark?" Loki asked the hero.

"He'll live, thanks to you."

Loki nodded.

"Did anyone see where Thor went?" Loki asked.

"SHIELD moved in immediately but he was already gone."

"The stasis spell I put on him wasn't permanent but it should still have been in effect."

"Meaning someone else took him away," Steve completed the thought.

"Exactly."

Lisa finally relinquished her hold on Loki and stepped to the side, so she could keep one hand around his waist, as if she was afraid he would leave her again.

Steve Rogers held his hand out to Loki. "Thank you for your help."

Loki was surprised by the gesture and had to transfer Mjolnir to his left hand, which was still around Lisa, before he could shake Steve's hand.

'_Why is he being so friendly?'_ Loki asked. He was perhaps the most diplomatic of the avengers but he wasn't exactly a Loki fan.

'_One, you saved his, Tasha and Clint's lives and two, you protected Stark. That buys you some respect and a little leeway to prove yourself.'_

'_I don't have to prove myself to anyone.'_

'_All I'm saying is that what you did opened the door. It's up to you if you're too stubborn to walk through it.'_

Loki smiled down at her.

'_And I still hate you.'_

'_If you drape yourself over everyone you hate in this manner, I'll have to try to remember to upset you more often.'_

'_I'm only holding onto you so you can't run off and get yourself killed again.'_

"Fury wants you for a debriefing," Steve said, interrupting their silent chat.

"A what?"

"He wants to know what happened," Lisa explained.

"Why?"

"Um…"

"So he can complete his reports," Steve explained. "There was a lot of damage done here today; that needs to be explained and if necessary, blame apportioned."

"So let me see if I have this correct," Loki said. "I save your Avengers from my brother, and my reward is to sit in a room with a man I intensely dislike, whilst I attempt to justify my actions to him?"

"Well, when you put it like that," Steve smiled.

* * *

"And the hammer?" Fury asked Loki.

Save for Tony, who was being treated a few floors down, everyone was seated around the table in one of Stark's conference room. The room they had been in earlier was now lacking quite a few large windows, so they had found a new base of operations.

"I believe I can explain why it came to me. When Thor was first banished to Midgard, Odin enchanted Mjolnir so that Thor could only wield it if he was worthy. Unfortunately, as I could have told him had he asked my opinion, his spell was sloppy and not at all specific; anyone who was deemed worthy would be able to wield the hammer and possess the power of Thor. I can only assume that in trying to stop my brother, Mjolnir judged my actions as worthy."

"So his power is now yours?"

Loki smiled, realising how uncomfortably that thought was making Fury.

"Yes. Unfortunately, without my father to strip Thor of his immortality, my brother is still a god and virtually indestructible, with or without Mjolnir."

'_Do you think I should tell them about Heimdall not being able to see you?' _Lisa asked.

'_No. I don't want Fury to know how powerful you have grown. I believe we must share part of it however, it may help us solve this puzzle.'_

'_I'll leave it to you then.'_

"Where are we on facial recognition?" Fury asked Romanoff.

"We're checking all the cameras in and around the park. No signs of him, it's like Thor simply disappeared."

"Whoever is behind this wields powerful magics," Loki explained.

"How can you tell?" Steve asked.

"There is a guardian on Asguard, named Heimdall. He is the gatekeeper of the bifrost, which we use to travel between worlds and he has the unique ability to see everything and everyone. From his post on Asguard, he can see all nine realms and ten trillion souls, as he is rather fond of reminding people. Usually, all one must do is call his name and providing it is safe to do so, he will open the bifrost and bring us home. I attempted to contact him to return Thor and I to Asguard, where Thor would be unable to do as much damage, but Heimdall did not reply."

"Maybe he was just ignoring you," Clint suggested.

"Me, possibly but Thor? No. Heimdall has committed treason for Thor in the past, he would not allow Thor to harm the mortals he loves so dearly, not if he could help it."

"So why couldn't he see you and Thor?" Fury got the conversation back on track.

"Some, a very few, can shield themselves from him. I have done so in the past and the Dark Elves also possess that knowledge. That leaves me to believe that whoever is controlling my brother, has access to strong magic."

"Forgive me if I'm missing something obvious, but how do we know you aren't possessing Thor? You've just admitted that you're powerful enough to shield yourself from the guardian, and I've seen you brainwash people before."

"It's not him," Lisa assured Fury. "He almost died out there."

"He looks pretty healthy to me."

"I looked into Agent Barton's head, remember? This is nothing like what happened to him."

"Loki could have found another way to control people," Fury explained condescendingly. "And forgive me, but you are hardly an impartial witness."

"You're right, I could do this," Loki seemed proud of that fact. "However, I fail to see what I have to gain by controlling Banner and Thor. What do I want with Stark? If I wanted, I could have kidnapped Stark at any point since we arrived."

"Perhaps this whole thing is just a ruse to get us to trust you," Fury suggested. "The more faith we have in you, the more freedom you'll be granted."

"If you think I care anything for your opinion of me, then you are sadly mistaken."

"Until we have proof that Loki is behind this, I say we move on," Steve interrupted. "We're going in circles here and honestly, I don't see what Loki has to gain from this."

"All right. So what do we know about the person or persons who are possessing Thor?" Fury asked.

"I got a look inside Thor's head when he came for Tony," Lisa piped up. "I tried to search his mind for his consciousness but whoever did this to him buried it deep."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning they're strong. I also couldn't detect the consciousness of the person possessing him and while I have no clue how possessions work, would assume that in order to be possessed, there must be a consciousness in the driving seat, even if it is someone else's."

"So Thor isn't possessed."

"I'm telling you that I don't know. If I had to describe Thor's mind, and assuming there was such a thing, I would liken his brain to that of a zombie's, he moves, acts and reacts but he has no higher reasoning."

'_What's a zombie?'_ Loki asked.

'_A staple of horror movies. When we get a chance, I'll introduce you to Zombieland.'_

"Okay, Barton and Romanoff, I want you going over the footage we've got. Look for anything or anyone who seems out of place. Dr Banner, Jane, I'll furnish you will the satellite reading we have from the attack. See if you can find anything out of place that might give us a way to track Thor, or whoever is behind this. Stark will probably want to help once he's up to it. Rogers and I will go through our arsenal and see if we've got any tricks that might work. Loki, stick close to Stark. It seems clear that he's the target."

"Are you attempting to give me orders?" Loki asked with a confused frown.

'_Play nice, Loki.'_

'_I'm sure I don't know what you mean.'_

'_Riiight.'_

"I was under the impression that you wanted to help Thor and if that's the case, staying close to Stark seems the best way to achieve that objective."

* * *

Lisa went with Loki to watch over Stark, who was being treated in the med bay next door. Banner and Jane were across the room, studying the data Fury had provided.

'_Could you heal him?' _Lisa asked._ 'I mean, I assume Mjolnir's power is endless so you wouldn't have to worry about that, and it will mean Thor's less likely to be able to kidnap him if Tony's back to full strength.'_

'_Why should I care if he lives or dies?'_

'_You cared earlier.'_

'_For Thor's sake, not my own.'_

'_Then help him for Thor's sake too. Don't forget that if Thor does get his hands on Stark, we lose our bait to lure Thor.' _

'_We?' _He wasn't upset by her use of the word and to be honest, she was just as surprised to find herself thinking of them as a 'we'; this was a demi-god they were trying to capture and any mortal with any sense would be keeping their distance.

Lisa shrugged. _'I don't seem to be able to get you out of my head, ever, so I'd say we're in this together, right?'_

'_Stark will refuse my offer,'_ Loki assured her. _'Besides, I don't want to become nurse maid to mortals.'_

'_Well, I'd like to ask a favour of Tony and having that to bargain with might be useful.'_

'_What kind of favour?'_

Lisa considered before answering. '_I know you won't care but I want to know why SHIELD have been meddling with my life since I was a child. I know Stark doesn't trust SHIELD and I saw in his thoughts that he's hacked their system before. He's my best shot of discovering the truth.'_

'_I confess, I am curious about what it is that they find so very special about you.'_

'_Gee, thanks.'_

'_Very well, you may barter for your favour with my healing ability.'_

'_Thank you.'_

Lisa headed next door, where Stark was having his ribs strapped.

"Oww, agh! Be gentle with me, please," Tony teased the paramedic treating him.

"Can I have a quick word?" Lisa asked.

"Sure thing, Barbie."

"In private."

Stark looked to the paramedic. "Give us a minute?"

He left the room and Lisa stepped closer to Tony, who was sitting on the edge of a bed. She checked into minds nearby, just to make sure that none of them could hear her.

'_Only me.' _Loki answered_. _

'_You don't count, you're on my side… I think.'_

"What's up?" Stark asked.

"You've hacked into SHIELD before, right?"

"Yep, piece of cake."

"Could you do it again?"

"Sure, why?"

"I want to see the file they have on me."

"It's certainly an intriguing idea, Britney. Why do you want to see it?"

"Because I don't believe their reasons for keeping an eye on me, I think they're hiding something."

"And you're probably right," Tony answered. "I'll see what I can do. Do you have any more details for me?"

"My name is Lisa Mason but I was born Angela Ironwood. Birth place, Cambridge." She gave him her date of birth and the code that Loki had seen on Fury's screen. "Hopefully that should be enough."

"Okay."

"Thanks. I appreciate it."

"No problem, just remember, you owe me one."

"I will. Speaking of, I happen to know someone who is a whizz at healing people, he healed my broken wrists and he healed Jane."

"Yeah right, let Rock of Ages loose on me, good plan. He'll probably just give me a third eye or something but hey, that could be fun. Especially if he put eyes on my palms, it'd make looking up skirts so much easier."

"Yeah, but imagine the view next time you're alone and need some… relief."

"Good point. No extra eyes." Tony's grinned.

"He won't, I promise; I'll keep an eye on him, I swear. But with someone like Thor on your tail, I think you should be firing on all cylinders, don't you?"

"I suppose you're right. Okay, I accept."

Loki entered the room. "Give me your hands."

"Are you two like one entity now?" Tony asked. "I speak to her but you answer? And I gotta tell ya, that silent conversation act of yours is getting a little creepy."

'_Are you jealous? Would you like to silently converse with me?'_ Lisa teased, projecting her voice into Stark's head.

'_Can you hear me?'_ He asked.

'_Yup.'_

'_Okay, that's freaky, and no, I don't want to be part of your secret Carrie club, but thanks for asking. Although it would drive Pepper nuts, so maybe.'_

'_Carrie was telekinetic, not telepathic.'_

"Hands," Loki reminded Stark. He thought it best not to let Stark know that through Lisa, he too could hear the Iron Man's thoughts.

"Okay, but don't fix anything associated with child rearing, I don't have that much faith in you."

"Trust me, I have no interest in harming your sex life," Loki assured him. "I would need to care about you, to wish you harm."

"Zing! Point to Loki." Tony actually seemed to be enjoying the banter. He shivered as the sensation of magic coursed through him. "Oh, that tickles. Admit it, you like me really, even Pepper doesn't tickle me like that."

Loki had his head lowered as he concentrated but at Tony's quip he looked up, glaring.

"Oh, scary. You weren't in a little film called Ghostbusters, were you? Playing that painting dude?"

"Don't you ever get sick of the sound of your own voice?" Loki asked with contempt.

"Funny story; no."

"If I were you, I would worry about me shrinking your tongue, not your penis."

"You know," Lisa interrupted. "If you two ever teamed up, you'd be unstoppable."

"Is there much of a call in Midgard for witty repartee?" Loki asked.

"Sure. I can see the sitcom now, '_Loki & Tony'_, the 21 century version of the odd couple."

Loki favoured her with a withering look. _'What are you prattling on about now, woman?'_

'_TV shows.'_

"Do you guys know, I can hear you?"

"Shut up, Tony."

"Be quiet, Stark."

"O-kay, just wanted to let you know. Overhearing a telepathic fight is just weird."

'_Can he still hear us?'_ Loki raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

'_No. I was just broadcasting because you irritate me.'_

'_I irritate you? And here I thought I was doing you a favour.'_

'_You've heard of being a sore loser, right?'_

'_Of course.'_ Loki rolled his eyes.

'_There's such a thing as a sore winner, you know, and it involves not being a dick over small or large victories.' _

'_What's the point of winning if you can't gloat?'_

'_Uh, the satisfaction of winning, maybe? Of knowing you're the best?'_

'_What's the point of being the best if no one else knows it?'_

'_Wow, you really must have awful self-esteem to need such constant and gratuitous external validation.'_

'_I hardly think that- wait, are you trying to, what do you mortals call it, '_shrink me'_?'_

'_Good Lord, no. I am a licenced and trained professional with a interest in anti-social behaviour, and even I wouldn't touch your issues with a barge pole.'_

Stark felt much better now, perfect in fact; Loki had even healed an old ankle injury which didn't slow him down but did twinge occasionally, ever since a drunken frat party in college, to be exact.

Loki released Stark's hands but kept his gaze focused on Lisa. Clearly they were still arguing and Stark wondered what the proper etiquette in this situation was. Not that being polite was a prime concern of his, he was just curious.

Did you interrupt the fight to thank the healer? Did you bring offerings of fruit and vegetables perhaps? Sacrifice a lamb in thanks? Possibly trade a first born?

In the end he opted to just slip away, and keep an eye out to see how long it took them to notice he was even gone.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

Loki had gone off somewhere to brood over his missing brother; he was exceptionally worried about a man that he claimed to hate.

Lisa was left staying with the science geeks, feeling like a fifth wheel. She wasn't dumb by any stretch of the imagination, but physics just wasn't her thing.

Instead she was wondering how she might psychically search for Thor, and his now rather unique brain signature. It would be easier if his consciousness wasn't locked away, of course, but even so, she would be searching for one voice in a city of God only knew how many million.

'_Almost eight and a half million.'_

'_I wasn't talking to you, Loki.'_

'_Then try not to mention gods.'_

Lisa let out a slow, longsuffering sigh.

"Hey, Tinkerbell?"

Lisa turned to Stark. She didn't really get most of his nicknames, but she knew if he was talking to her thanks to her telepathy.

"Yeah."

"Here." He had stepped away from the other science guys and handed her something about the size of a shirt button. "Go see Barton and Romanoff, their computer is networked to SHIELD servers at the moment."

"And what do I do with this?"

"Just place it within five feet of their screens. Jarvis will take care of the rest."

"Okay, thanks."

"Don't thank me yet, you might not like what I find."

"An uncomfortable truth is always better than a comforting lie."

"Sure, you say that now. We'll talk again when you've read your file."

She offered him a weak smile. "How are you feeling?"

"Ship shape and good as new. Pepper better get back from Washington soon, I haven't felt this vital since I was a horny teenager."

Lisa laughed. Sure, Tony was an arrogant, annoying jerk at times but at other times, his irreverence was exactly what was needed to pep up a flagging spirit.

"Thanks, Tony, I appreciate it."

She made her way to the room the SHIELD operatives were working out of, with a few helpful directions from Jarvis.

Barton didn't trust her at all and was pretty sure Loki was controlling her in some way, since she was civil and even friendly with Loki. Romanoff was a little wary of her but more open minded.

"Hi," Lisa said from the doorway. "Any luck?"

"No," Natasha answered, rubbing her eyes. "We've been over what little footage we have with a fine toothed comb but I can't see anything useful here."

"Can I look? A fresh set of eyes might help."

"Sure, it can't hurt."

Barton wanted to argue but since he didn't have any better ideas, and couldn't think of a reason she shouldn't see the footage, he kept silent.

Natasha moved her chair aside and Lisa leaned forward to better see the screen, her hands resting on the edge of the desk. In reality, she wanted to press the bug Stark had given her to the underside of the desk, which she did as soon as she was sure both agents were looking at the screens.

'_Wait stop!'_

'_What?'_ she asked Loki.

'_Go back.'_

"Can you play that again?" Lisa asked Natasha.

"Sure."

Lisa couldn't see what had caught Loki's eye, it was footage caught by an ATM camera of Thor and Jane entering the Italian, but it was far from the best quality footage.

'_There!'_

"What's there!" she demanded, earning some very strange looks from the SHIELD agents. "Loki thinks he can see something."

'_I'm on my way.'_

"So he can see through your eyes now?" Romanoff asked.

"I guess. No one really explained what this bonding ritual does but as time goes on, we're more and more in each other's heads."

"That must be freaky," the other woman sympathised.

Lisa was about to argue that although she hadn't expected it, she was quickly getting used to it.

'_Agree with her,'_ Loki demanded.

Lisa didn't like being ordered around. "I'm constantly sharing headspace with a whacked out, egotistical, alien control freak; freaky doesn't even begin to cover it."

'_Better?'_ she asked him, sweetly.

'_There's no need to sound _quite_ so horrified.' _Loki strolled into the room before he had finished the thought. He didn't bother with small talk, simply moved Lisa out of the way and took possession of the mouse from Romanoff.

"Don't mind me," she said acerbically.

"I won't." Loki restarted the clip and played the footage until Jane and Thor had gone inside, then he paused it and inched forward, a frame at a time.

"There," he said.

Frozen on screen was the image of a white haired, rather freaky looking man, wearing far too much guyliner and with some sort of line or tattoo going over his lower lip and down to his chin.

"What, where did he come from?" Natasha asked, going back a few frames, then forward. It quickly became apparent that the white haired man who entered the establishment after Jane and Thor, had a very different face most of the time.

"It's an illusion spell," Loki explained. "The slip was momentary, probably not even visible to the naked eye, but for a fraction of a second, the camera saw through it."

"So this guy is the one controlling Thor?" Romanoff asked.

Loki looked around and grabbed a sheet of paper from the printer. A green glow shimmered over the paper, then he showed it to them; it was the image Lisa and Loki had seen in Banner's head, the blurry and out of focus one.

Loki pointed to a blur of white with a black smudge, and with the two images side by side, it looked like an out of focus picture of the same man's white hair and one dark rimmed eye.

"I would say that is a very safe bet," Loki stated the obvious.

"I'll run his face through our facial recognition software," Barton said, turning to his screen.

"No need, he is Taneleer Tivan, also known as the Collector."

"What does he collect?" Lisa asked.

"Anything and everything."

"Gee thanks, that narrows it down." Lisa was really getting tired of his snark.

"It is the absolute truth," Loki explained. "He's ancient and he cannot die. After his wife died, he went a little crazy and began collecting anything and everything, from art to technology, from plants to magical artefacts, although he is especially fond of unique objects or creatures."

"Creatures?" Barton asked.

"He is not above collecting living things, both dumb animals and higher beings."

"How do we stop him?" Barton demanded more than asked.

"We don't. He is one of the Elders of the Universe and when I say he cannot die, I mean it literally."

"What aren't you saying?" Lisa asked, feeling his fear.

Everyone in the room turned to look at Loki.

"You all recall the events of last year, when the Dark Elves attempted to destroy the universe using the Aether?"

They all nodded.

"Do you know what an infinity stone is?"

"Wasn't the tesseract supposed to be one?" Romanoff asked.

"Indeed," Loki agreed. "As is the Aether. All the infinity stones are incredibly powerful and Odin, in his infinite wisdom," that last bit was dripping with sarcasm, "decided that the Tesseract and the Aether should not both be kept on Asgard. Knowing Tivan's penchant for collecting rare and dangerous artefacts, the Allfather send the Aether to Tivan, for _'safekeeping'_."

"So he's using that to control Thor?" Natasha asked.

"No, all the infinity stones work in slightly different ways and while the Aether itself needs to possess someone, it doesn't take over their mind. I only mention it because an already powerful and immortal being, now possesses one of the six most powerful relics in the universe."

Romanoff looked to Barton. "Do you want to tell Fury how screwed we are, or shall I?"

'_I'll go to see Fury with the agents,'_ Loki told Lisa. '_Try and contact Heimdall again, Asgard needs to know that Tivan is controlling Thor.'_

'_But with their bifrost broken, what can they do?'_

'_I don't know. I presume Odin is the one who sent Mjolnir to me-'_

'_I thought it came to you because you were worthy of it?'_

'_I said that to get the mortals to trust me. I think it far more likely that Odin, knowing my magic was limited, sent it to me, rather than that I suddenly became worthy of it, don't you?'_

'_Well, you did almost die trying to save Stark-'_

'_The point is, there may other ways that Odin can help us.'_

'_Okay, I'll try and contact them again.'_

* * *

As Loki spoke to Fury and the Avengers, he listened in on Lisa's conversation with Heimdall. Unwilling to let Fury know that she was in contact with Asgard, he relayed the information Heimdall gave Lisa, as if it were his own knowledge.

"Tivan has access to powerful magics but I believe he is using something known as an Obedience Potion to control Thor and most likely, Dr Banner before him."

"So this potion, I assume it does exactly what it says on the tin?" Fury asked.

"I haven't personally encountered it before but yes, as Lisa might say, it turns people into mindless zombies."

Fury narrowed his eyes when he mentioned Lisa. Why was he so worried about a mortal?

"So why did this collector take Banner first?"

"It's just my opinion, but the Hulk is a creature of instinct and emotion. I would assume that he was harder to control because unlike most people, he is used to functioning with little higher reasoning and therefore, better able to resist."

'_Tell Banner, 'no offence'.'_

"No offence."

"None taken," Bruce assured him.

"When Banner proved too difficult to control, Thor arriving on the scene must have seemed like a gift."

"Okay," Fury spoke up. "So can we counteract this potion?"

"I'm not sure," Loki pretended to think, while he waited for Lisa to relay the question. "I believe there are herbs on Asgard that can counteract the effects but since I am unable to travel there, I cannot retrieve them."

"I though you knew secret ways off Asgard?"

"I did, but they have been blocked to me of late." Much to his chagrin. He would be willing to bet that with the bifrost out of action and Thor in danger, even Odin was regretting having done such a very through a job of blocking his alternate routes off Asgard.

"So what now?" Fury asked the whole table.

"I know no one's going to like this but once we have a plan, I say we use Stark as bait," Romanoff gave Stark a sympathetic look.

"You're right, it's horrible idea," Stark agreed. "Moving on."

"Stark is right," Steve spoke up. "To use him as bait, we're assuming that we know when and where Thor will try again when the fact is, he could come back in the next thirty seconds."

"If this guy came to Earth while the bifrost was broken," Banner suggested, "Maybe he came in a spaceship, not through a portal."

"I think you'll find that Tivan is the one causing the interference with the bifrost, and blocking Thor from Heimdall's sight. You are correct about a ship however, he has a cargo ship of sorts, he fills it up, then unloads his acquisitions on planets which he has turned into museums."

"Planets?" Fury asked.

"He's been collecting for far longer than humanity has existed," Loki said by way of explanation.

"This guy puts Extreme Hoarders to shame," Natasha muttered.

"Okay," Stark redirected the conversation. "We need to examine all the sensor data we can get our hands on, from radiation to weather readouts. Jarvis can compile it and look for unusual patterns in the days immediately preceding the Hulk's disappearance, and during his and Thor's rampages."

The Avengers continued to debate ideas but Loki tuned them out, mostly. He was a master tactician but he wasn't a team player. When he confronted Tivan he wanted it to be on his terms, with the Avengers possibly thrown in as a distraction. Either way, the point was to take the fight to Tivan, thereby catching him off guard and on the run.

"It worries me that you've been so quiet, Loki," Fury said and although he turned to the director, Loki didn't reply. "Care to share your thoughts?"

He'd have to give them something and there was one thing he could use their help with. "A bezoar."

"God bless you," Stark joked.

"A what?" Fury asked.

"A bezoar."

"Like in Harry Potter?" Banner asked.

"I'm unfamiliar with that reference," Loki answered. "Where I come from, bezoars are stones made from the petrified heart of a dragon. Once infused with a little magic, they make for excellent antidotes to almost all poisons. If I could find such a stone on Midgard, when we meet Thor again, I might be able to counteract the effects of the obedience potion."

"Give me as much information as you can about them, we'll start searching."

There wasn't much to tell, they were stones, usually an inch or so in diameter and dark red in colour, some almost black. Only a magician could tell the real thing from a fake however but if they found as many bezoars as they could, Loki would sort through them.

As the meeting broke up, Fury stepped in front of Loki. "Where are you going?"

"To check on Lisa. She has used her gift a lot in the past few days and was feeling weak."

"Uh huh." His tone implied disbelief but when even if he were being absolutely truthful, Loki was sure that Fury would always be sceptical. He stepped around the director and went in search of his lover.

He frowned, lover?

'_I've been called worse,'_ Lisa assured him.

'_It's wasn't the word I was objecting to, just the application of it.'_

'_Well, technically it's true.' _She reminded him.

'_One tryst does not a lover make.'_

'_Have it your way, but I was looking forward to a replay.'_

Loki smiled; she had a point.

* * *

'_No! Look, I found Heimdall because one, I already know what his mind is like and two, because a part of _his_ mind is spread out across the universe keeping an eye on everyone. I cannot pick one mind I've never encountered before, from a population of over eight million, assuming that they're even in New York.'_

Lisa stalked away from Loki and went to look out of the window of her suite.

'_You won't even try?'_

Lisa sighed. _'Of course I'll try, but unless you can give me something to look for, I won't find this Collector guy.'_

Loki thought for a moment. _'I've only met the man on two occasions but there was a sort of… aura about him. If I share that memory with you, can you search using that?'_

'_I'll try.'_

He quickly found the memories and he could feel Lisa reviewing those memories with him. Lisa then sat on her bed, legs crossed and her hands resting on her knees.

'_What _are_ you doing?'_

'_Meditating. I figure if I relax and try to clear all other stuff out of my mind, I might have a better chance of finding this guy.'_

Loki had no idea if that would help, but he made an effort to calm his own thoughts, since they now shared their mental landscapes and he didn't want to distract her.

She sat there for half an hour, concentrating until perspiration covered her forehead, before she finally gave up and sagged to the bed.

'_I can't do it, I'm just not powerful enough,'_ she told him. _'I'm sorry.'_

'_Telepathy is just magic and if you have some magic, you can draw on other sources.'_

'_Yeah, so what, I just shove my finger in a power socket?' _She was tired and perhaps a little irritable.

'_Don't be foolish. You need to be taught how to feel the energy around you, then harness it.'_

'_If it's so damn easy, why don't you do it?'_

'_I'm not telepathic.'_

'_Fine, so teach me.'_

Loki glared at her. _'It takes years of study.'_

'_Hey, don't get snippy with me! How about we only suggest ideas that have a time frame of a few days, max.'_

Loki glared for a moment, then seemed to visibly deflate. Lisa could feel his worry.

'_I have a very bad feeling,'_ Loki confessed.

'_I know.'_

'_Tivian is one of the most powerful beings in the universe.'_

'_I know.'_

'_I hate to admit it but Thor is one of the most decent men in all the nine realms. If Tivan can corrupt him, what chance do I stand against him?'_

'_Hey!'_ Lisa got off the bed and knelt down in front of him, cupping his face in her hands. _'You can do this. We can do it, together. I know it seems insurmountable but we have a saying here on Earth, 'it's always darkest before the dawn'. We will do whatever it takes to find Thor, okay?'_

Loki looked at her for a long moment. _'Do you mean that?'_

'_Of course I do.'_ Lisa smiled.

Loki reached out and cupped her cheek in his hand. _'This will only hurt for a minute.'_

A white hot pain shot into her head, like she was being stabbed through the eyeball. She was pretty sure she screamed but the pain was so great, she hardly heard it.

* * *

Loki stared in shock as Lisa fell to the floor, unconscious.

'_Lisa? Lisa!'_

Nothing. He tried to hear her thoughts, something that was automatic these days, even when she was asleep, but he couldn't.

He knew that sharing magic with a Midgardian would be painful for the mortal, but it shouldn't have been that painful. He had felt each excruciating moment as his magic swept through her body, causing her wave after wave of unbearable agony. He had tried to stop it, then he had tried to reverse it, but it was as if he had set off a chain reaction.

The door burst open.

"What happened?" Natasha asked, pushing Loki back to get to Lisa. He let her, falling against the wall as he watched Lisa lying there, completely still.

Banner was next in, followed by Stark and Rogers.

"What happened?" Bruce asked, checking her pulse and breathing.

"I…"

"She's alive." Bruce declared.

"What happened?" Rogers demanded of Loki.

"I don't know. She was trying to find the Collector." It sounded like a believable excuse, the Collector was powerful enough to enslave Thor after all, and hurting a mortal would be nothing in comparison.

Rogers didn't seem to believe him.

He should tell them the truth, they might be better able to help her if he did but no matter how much he claimed not to care about mortal opinions of him, he couldn't.

Was this what shame felt like?

"We need to get her to the medical bay," Banner said.

Rogers stepped forward, picking Lisa up, bridal style and rushed out of the room, the other's following him except for Romanoff, who glared at him for a moment before leaving.

Loki sat there, his back to the wall, still in shock. He could still feel the sting of the hurt she felt, the betrayal but he knew those were remembered feelings, no longer coming from Lisa.

What had he done? Part of him didn't want to know, while another part desperately needed to.

Slowly, he got to his feet and made his way to the medical bay.


	11. Chapter 11

Norse Proverb: When men meet foes in fight, better is stout heart than sharp sword.

**Chapter Eleven**

Through the glass wall, he observed Lisa being strapped up to all kinds of machinery. Everyone else was in there, although they were allowing Banner and Stark plenty of room to work. They all kept giving him distrustful and accusatory looks, but he ignored them and watched Lisa as she lay motionless, as though she were the only thing in the universe.

He couldn't hear them through the soundproof glass. In just a few weeks, he had become used to feeling what she did, hearing what she did, seeing what she saw and now, it was disconcerting to be cut off from her experiences.

They were attaching probes to her head as Loki went into the room.

"What do you want?" Barton demanded.

"Let me try and heal her." He had tried drawing the magic back out of her but he hadn't tried healing her. He should have.

"How do we know you aren't going to kill her?"

"Let him try," Steve said, although he too was casting a wary eye over Loki. "He healed Stark and Jane, we have no reason to believe he wants to harm Lisa."

"Will it affect your sensors?" Fury asked Bruce.

"As long as he doesn't touch her head, it should be fine."

Loki stepped up to the bed and took her hands in his. Calling on all the power Mjolnir possessed, he channelled it into healing Lisa, using so much magic that for a moment, her skin appeared iridescent.

It didn't heal her however.

"Her brain function seems intact, but she's in a coma," Bruce told them.

Loki didn't stop trying to heal her.

'_I don't understand it, if I hurt her, she should have injuries to heal from.'_

His thought got no answering reply from Lisa.

Banner moved around the bed, testing her reactions to stimuli, pricking her with needles, shining a light in her eyes. "I'd say she was a level eight on the Glasgow scale."

"How bad is that?" Fury asked.

"It's a moderate to severe coma."

"Prognosis?" Stark asked.

"Unknown. Unless she had brain damage, she should wakeup."

"How long untill she wakes up?" Jane asked.

"There's no telling. Hopefully she's using this time to heal."

"What happens if she doesn't wake up?" Darcy asked.

Bruce looked over at her, his eyes saying all she needed to know.

"Do we need to get her to a hospital?" Steve interrupted.

"There's not much they can do that we can't."

Loki finally gave up trying to heal her, but he kept ahold of one of her hands.

"Can't you look into her mind?" Steve asked Loki. "You two have been getting pretty cosy of late."

"I've tried but she is the telepath, not I. Without her, it seems I cannot enter her mind."

They basically ignored Loki after that, and he them; far too focused on Lisa to listen to their discussions.

Some left, only to return later, Banner hovered, Stark brooded, Fury yelled. Jane tended to her, talking to her as if Lisa could hear every word, Darcy made inappropriate comments and did whatever Bruce and Jane asked her to.

Every half hour, a scanner ran the length of her body, the results of the scan being sent to Stark's computers.

Small groupings of Avengers and SHIELD agents met on the other side of the glass wall, discussing things that Loki didn't care to hear, even if he could have.

At Jane's behest, Darcy pulled a chair up for Loki and pressed on his shoulders until he gave in and sat. Jane lowered the bed, taking a seat at the other side.

Although it was hard to tell in this windowless room, day gave way to night and visitors became infrequent. The lights in the room dimmed automatically. Jane sent Darcy to bed but chose to stay with Lisa and sleep in a chair.

"She'll be okay," Jane said to him, the first time she had tried to address him in hours. He hadn't responded to any of her attempts at conversation before, but although she had no expectations of a reply, she got one.

"You don't know that," Loki finally spoke.

"Maybe not, but I choose to believe it. She's strong, Loki, and brave. She'll find her way back to us."

Even if that was true, she may not want Loki, who had done this to her.

"You really do care about her, don't you?" Jane asked.

"She is growing on me, I suppose… rather like a fungus."

Jane smiled and he was surprised that she got his humour.

Loki's eyes didn't leave Lisa's face but he gave her an honest answer. "I don't know what I feel. Having her emotions inside my head felt like a punishment in the beginning but somewhere along the way…"

"You made room for her in your heart," Jane finished.

"Sentiment," Loki muttered, but with far less derision that he usually reserved for the subject.

Jane was right, but he preferred to think of Lisa working _her_ way into his affections, rather than he willingly granting her room in his heart.

Loki was used to being by himself but rarely did he feel lonely. Now though, even although he was in company, he felt isolated, as if part of him was missing. He had never felt more alone, not even when he had fallen into the abyss.

He had spent years trying not to feel and having her emotions foisted on him had been difficult. He had almost failed to notice his own emotions resurfacing, balanced as they were by her feelings; she gave him just enough light to balance out his dark moods. Without her to balance him now though, all he felt now was pain, regret, guilt and shame, and he didn't like it.

"You should get some sleep," Loki said. "I'll stay with her and Thor wouldn't want you to worry."

Jane looked up, surprised to see that Loki was looking out for her.

"Thanks but, I don't think I could sleep, right now."

Loki nodded sadly.

"I'll stay with her if you want to sleep," Jane answered.

"Even if I could sleep, without her in my head, I'll have my own dreams back. Almost anything is preferable to that."

"You share dreams?" Jane asked. While he seemed willing to talk, the scientist in her made her want to understand as much as could about him.

"It seems the bond we made gives us both copies of the other's memories. I can't be certain, but I think that exchange mostly happens when we're asleep."

"So you have her memories now?"

"There are gaps but yes, I think I have most of the important ones."

Jane paused for a few moments as she wondered the best way to phrase her next question.

"So, what did you used dream about?"

"I try not to remember."

"Why?"

He turned to look at her and she expected to see derision but what she saw was sorrow. He turned back to Lisa without answering.

"What happened to you? After you fought Thor, where did you go?"

"Somewhere I try very hard not to remember."

His tone was harder than previously and she knew she couldn't push him much further on that topic.

"Do you think we'll get Thor back?" She asked.

"You ask a lot of questions."

"Because you're answering, I may never get another chance."

The corners of his lips turned up. "What if you don't like my answers?"

"Forewarned is forearmed."

Loki nodded slowly. "Very well; in truth, I do not know. Thor and I were always evenly matched so with the power of Mjolnir to call on, I can defeat him. Overcoming Tivan and his control however, is another matter entirely."

"Couldn't you put a spell on Thor, make him as unpredictable as the Hulk? Maybe the Collector will give him up, like he did with Bruce."

"Possibly, _if_ I can find him. There is no guarantee that I would be successful, or that Tivan would release him."

"This Tivan must have weaknesses?"

"I'm sure he does, but I'm equally sure that he does not advertise them."

They lapsed into silence again and Jane looked over Lisa's notes and the test results in her chart, then she got up check on the computer.

"Loki?"

"What?"

"Come look at this."

Reluctantly, he joined Jane at the computer screen. "What am I looking at?"

"I don't know, but something's happening to her."

Loki bent down to better read the screen, and could see that there was unusual activity on a cellular level and if he didn't know any better, he might guess that she was being rebuilt, on a molecular scale. That was a ridiculous notion however. Nonetheless, the activity was worrying.

"Is this hurting her in any way?"

"Her vitals still look good, she doesn't seem to be in pain… I don't know what it's doing, but she isn't in distress. I'll send Stark a copy."

"He's not a medical doctor, is he?"

"No, none of us are, but these are Stark's machines, he might understand what's happening better than we do."

Loki returned to Lisa's bedside, although he regularly glanced over at the computer, where Jane still sat, trying to make sense of the data.

* * *

Stark came into the room around 7a.m. looking rather bleary eyed.

"Good, you're up." He said to Loki. "I wanted to talk to you before everyone else gets here."

Loki stood and they faced each other over Lisa's bed.

"Do you know what's happening to her?" Loki asked.

"I might." He took a computer tablet from his jacket pocket. "This is SHIELD's file on her. I'm sharing this with you only because she's asleep and I can't share it with her. Plus you're the only one who might know what this means for her. I've also falsified the scan data so if Fury asks, her readings appear normal."

"I understand."

Stark still hesitated to hand over the tablet. "I can trust you, right?"

"As a general rule, no but in this instance, you can trust that I want what's best for her."

Stark gave a brief nod and handed the tablet over. "Come on, Jane, Jarvis found some anomalous readings that might help us find Thor."

Stark and Jane left the room, leaving Loki alone with Lisa and a file of SHIELD's secrets.

* * *

"It's good news," Banner assured him. "The higher the rating, the deeper the coma. She's a five on the Glasgow Scale now, it means she's waking up."

Loki nodded his understanding.

"We're planning an attack on the Collector," Banner said next, which caught Loki's attention.

"You found him?"

"We think so, his ship, at least."

"Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"Fury wants you left out of this. He thought that while you were distracted with Lisa, we should leave you be. He doesn't trust you, and I can't blame him."

"So why are you telling me?"

"Because we're going up against your brother and someone who seems to scare even you, I think we can use all the help we can get. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and all that."

Loki looked back to Lisa. She'd been in this room almost 24 hours now.

"It could be another day or more before she wakes up," Banner told him. "Jane and Darcy are staying behind, they'll look after her."

"Thor needs me now," Loki agreed. He got up from his chair and leaned over Lisa, cupping her face with his right hand, wondering what to say.

Banner wondered if these two weren't even closer than everyone had suspected.

"Rest, Dear One, we have much to discuss but it can wait until you are well. And you will be well, or I shall tear the nine realms apart finding a cure for you."

As if that wasn't blatant enough, Loki leaned down and kissed her lips. Feeling uncomfortable witnessing such intimacy, Bruce looked away.

When Loki stood up, Bruce wondered if he might feel embarrassed, perhaps considering his display of caring a weakness, but he met Bruce's eye, almost daring him to say something.

"You ready?" Bruce asked.

"I am."

"Then let's go, we'll fill you in on the plane."

"Where's Fury?" Loki asked.

"Why does that matter?"

"So that I can formulate a plan for if he tries to stop me," he said, as if it should be obvious to anyone but a simpleton.

"He's gone to the Helicarrier and as long as no one talks, he wont even know you're with us until we get back. Even if he does realise, Shield only has one craft that can fly into orbit, so he can't do anything about it."

Jane and Darcy returned as they were leaving.

"Take care of her," Loki said.

"I will," Jane assured him. "Good luck."

Loki smiled as they left.

"What?" Bruce asked as they walked.

"Nothing, it's just been a very long time since anyone has wished me good luck."

"I'm sure you're more used to hearing curses."

"Yes, my name gets taken in vain with alarming regularity."

* * *

Lisa ran from place to place, dodging chunks of masonry and falling beams; it was as if her mind was having an unscheduled refurbishment, by invisible hands.

She paused by a long corridor, wondering if she could make it down there before it too began to fall apart and reassemble itself. Perhaps there was somewhere to hide down there, somewhere safe from the chaos that her mind was presently in. She wasn't physically tired, she had no body in here to tire, but she was mentally exhausted.

Worst of all, she was frightened. She had awoken to find herself in the deepest recesses of her mind, all around her shrouded in shadows and darkness, immediately she had needed to run to avoid a collapsing ceiling. The rumblings of her mind rebuilding itself had continued ever since. She didn't understand what was happening, nor did she know how to stop it. She didn't even know her own name, or how long she had been running.

She took a chance and darted down the hall, before the previous chamber could collapse completely.

Instinctively she knew that she was inside her own head, but she couldn't wake herself up. She also knew that there should be someone by her side, that she didn't live here alone, normally. But who was missing? What was happening?

She had never been in a mind while it was being torn down before and didn't know what the consequences were. However she suspected that if she died in here, she would for all intents and purposes, die out there.

And for that matter, what was out there? Where was she? Who was she?

She could recall seemingly random names, but not who they belonged to. Tim, Iárnvidia, Lisa, Ironwood, Loki, Mason, Angrboða, Sarah, Thor. Was one of those her name?

She screamed as a wall collapsed beside her, just barely dodging the debris. She ran on, desperate to find a haven among the chaos. When she came to stairs she debated whether to go up or down, and she was reminded of the old horror movie adage, never run upstairs.

However, up was the path to consciousness, possibly a way out of this destruction, although things would likely be even less stable in the higher regions of her consciousness. On the other hand, down, in the dark recessed of her mind, she might just find somewhere to shelter.

She went down.

* * *

Loki sat on the SHIELD craft and listened to the plan. It was a five hour flight, so they had plenty of time.

The scientific jargon went over Loki's head but he understood the principles they were discussing, he just viewed them in terms of magical energies.

From the readings, they gathered that Tivan had a Temporal Assimilator on board, or a time machine, which allowed him to make short jumps through time.

Loki explained that the sceptre that he had used was still on earth and contained some residual energy from the tesseract. He suggested that bombarding the device with the tesseract energy should create a far larger time jump than the Collector was usually able to make, sending him hundreds, possibly thousands of years into the future and as an added bonus, overload and destroy the Temporal Assimilator, preventing Tivan from easily returning to their time.

That was all well and good except, of course, the ship was in space; cloaked from detection as it orbited the earth. Only the energy from the Temporal Assimilator gave away its location.

The craft they were flying on was able to reach space, it was the getting home that worried Loki, especially with Thor in tow.

Fury had unearthed six bezoars and the plan was that Hawkeye would shoot one or more into Thor's mouth, counteracting the obedience potion. However, unwilling to bring Loki in on the plan, Fury hadn't checked with him to see which stones were real and as it turned out, none of them were genuine.

The easiest option was for Loki to simply grab Thor, punch a hole in the ship using Mjolnir and let gravity return them both to Midgard. While they would both almost certainly be broken and bloody, they would survive the fall. The only slight hitch would be the re-entry into the planet's atmosphere, which created exceptionally hot temperatures; so hot that he wasn't sure if he and Thor could withstand them.

Stark told him that the process could cause temperatures to reach 1,650 Celsius. The figure didn't mean very much to him but for comparison purposes, Banner informed him that the surface of the sun was 5,800 Celsius. That was exceptionally hot, even for Gods like himself and Thor.

He would use his magic to protect them but the question was, would it be enough.

The other's would keep Tivan busy until Loki had cleared the ship, then they would blast Tivan and his ship into the future and return to earth on their SHIELD craft.

Loki nominated the Black Widow to wield the sceptre since of everyone here, she had the best ability to focus and adapt. Loki schooled her on how to wield its residual power, changeling her thoughts into it and willing it do her bidding.

That was the plan but as many people know, most plans, especially ones such as this where there were so many unknowns, were doomed to fail.

Loki didn't much care about the fate of the humans once he had Thor, but if the mortals failed to send Tivan to the future, he would remain a threat.

In the event, the fight was far harder than anticipated, with giant vampire-bat creatures and a Drakion Destructoid robot, fighting alongside the Collector and Thor.

However, the Collector had obviously been collecting items for a while and had not yet transferred the new acquisitions to his museums. Loki recognised some of these artefacts and the Avengers were able to employ them against the minions.

To Hawkeye, he gave a Dergosian Gun which fired pellets that were able to freeze metal joints, effectively immobilising the android.

He chose Black Widow to wield a Tibetan Crystal Ball, a device that unleashed waves of mystical energy which sapped the targets spirit.

To Captain America, he gave a Vandarian Power Wand which was thought to be powerful enough to harm Asgardians. Loki trusted Steve not to use the power unwisely however.

Loki gave the Coats of Hercules to Iron Man, which he used to engulf the bats, cutting off their oxygen and rendering them unconscious.

Combined with Loki's magic, they subdued the bats, put the robot out of action and between them, kept the Collector and Thor occupied. Loki had been counting on the Black Widow's powers of persuasion to get her close enough to Tivan to use the crystal on him but Thor was acting as his protector, and Loki was unable to get him away; evidently Tivan's orders didn't allow him to be lured away from the Collector.

Iron Man eventually managed to encase Thor in a Coat of Hercules and to everyone's astonishment, it subdued him. Taken by surprise, Captain America was able to unbalance Tivan using the wand and when he fell, Loki placed Mjolnir on his chest and the Black Widow unleashed the crystal, sapping him of his spirit and essentially, his will to do anything.

The battle won, they looked around, surprised by their victory. They would have been fools not to expect at least some of them to be killed, or perhaps lost to the depths of space but while some were badly injured, no one mortally so.

Even Thor, while not cured yet, was subdued and could return to earth in the SHIELD vessel.

"Wow, looks like we won," Stark said, raising his face plate. "How 'bout that. The Avengers; kicking ass and talking names since 2012."

Even Loki shared some of their pleasure in the victory.

"It's not over yet," he warned though. "We need to get Thor back to earth and find a genuine bezoar to counteract the potion."

"And send this ship to the future," Steve added.

"What about the infinity stone?" Stark asked.

"It's not on board," Loki replied.

"How can you be sure?" Steve asked.

"I would be able to feel its power," Loki assured him. "I helped Thor try to defeat the Aether, so I know what its power feels like."

They didn't question him anymore.

"Then let's find this time machine so we can go home," Steve said.

They made their way deeper into the ship, to the temporal device, the Hulk carrying Thor and being surprisingly gentle with him.

"That's it?" Hawkeye asked. It looked a little like a golden spinning top.

"It's not the size that matter's, it's what you do with it." Stark quipped.

"You want to do the honours?" Romanoff said, passing Loki the sceptre.

He was surprised by the gesture. "Me?"

"You have more experience with this than I do."

Loki accepted the sceptre. "Get ready to run," he warned. "Once I flood the drive with the tesseract energy, we have perhaps five minutes until it blows. We need to be as far away as possible, unless we want to get caught up in the temporal wave."

"Now he tells us," Stark quipped.

"Honestly, I didn't expect us to make it this far; I saw no need to add to your burdens when the chances of success were low."

"Well, aren't you an eternal optimist."

Loki smirked at Stark, then looked down to the sceptre, which began to glow. He built the energy up and only when he deemed it enough, did he fire it at the Temporal Assimilator. The device glowed and began to spin, rather faster than Loki had anticipated. "Um, run!"

They did, scrambling down corridors and back to the airlock where their ship had docked. If he could have, he would have teleported them all but with so many of them, he would need to make at least two trips, so running was probably faster.

Loki could feel the power building in the temporal assimilator. "We need to hurry," he said as Barton was closing the airlock.

"We're going as fast as we can," Romanoff answered, she was already at the front of the ship. Powering up the engines.

"Hold on tight," Loki warned.

As soon as the ship disengaged, Loki sent a blast of energy into the engines, creating a powerful thrust that sent the ship careening away at over a hundred miles an hour. Everyone cried out, a few would have whiplash injuries, no doubt but when the force of the temporal explosion rocked their craft seconds later, they didn't chastise him for his actions.

Loki removed his hands from the ship and it returned to a normal speed as everyone regrouped.

Loki went to Thor, who had been dumped in the isle, still encased in the Coat of Hercules. He kneeled down beside him.

"Maybe he's all right now that the Collector's gone," Steve suggested.

Loki held his hand out and Thor's hammer flew straight into his palm.

"If he was himself, Mjolnir would no longer answer to my call." He sighed. "I will find a bezoar and if that doesn't cure him, I will return him to Asgard, their healers should be able to reverse the effects."

The return journey and re-entry was more dangerous than the outbound one but while the ship shook like a tin hut during an earthquake, it didn't break up and they were able to land on SHIELD's helicarrier.

Loki could feel Lisa again; she was experiencing a huge range of emotions, from fear to anger to sadness. He had to get back to her and make certain that she was all right.

Fury was waiting for them as they disembarked, not looking in the slightest bit happy to see Loki, who had Thor, still encased in the Coat of Hercules, slung over one shoulder and carrying Mjolnir in his opposite hand.

"Loki, I wasn't aware you were accompanying them on this mission," Fury said.

"And I wasn't aware that I needed your permission to rescue my brother. The bezoars you found were all counterfeit, by the way, so I must find another way to counteract the potion. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to check on someone."

Agents surrounded him with their guns drawn.

"You killed one of ours, you do not get to wander around Earth like it's your playground. Once we've debriefed you and Thor is awake, you might be allowed to leave."

Loki turned back to Fury and smirked. "I killed more than one, so which death was it specifically upset you?"

"Coulson."

Loki's smile turned into a grin. "The man who brought the avengers together." Loki looked behind him to where they stood, looking decidedly less friendly that they had a few moments ago. "I wonder why you chose now to remind them of that? Do you need to alienate them from me? Why?"

"I don't need-"

Loki cut Fury off. "What is most interesting though, is that judging by the stress in your voice, you're lying. I don't know what happened to Agent Coulson or how he survived, but he isn't dead, is he?"

The Avengers were sharing questioning glances but while some looked surprised, none actually seemed shocked.

"No, the point of my being here is to keep me away from Lisa, isn't it?"

"What makes you say that?"

"Because, Director Fury, I read her file." Loki turned away and disappeared, teleporting onto the roof of Stark tower, only mildly surprised to see Sif and the Warrior's three waiting for him.

"I take it that the bifrost is functioning again?" he said, perfectly politely.

"It is," Volstagg stepped forward and nodded to Loki's shoulder. "Is that Thor?"

"It is. I don't suppose you brought a way to counteract the effects of the portion he was given, did you?"

"We did," Fandral nodded.

"Then if you'll follow me, gentlemen. And Lady." He led them down into the building and to the medical bay but before he could place Thor on a bed, he noticed that Lisa's bed was empty.

"Where is she," he demanded of Jane.

'_I'm in the closet, Loki, I'm frightened,' Lisa said._

'_Oh, my love, you worried me. Will you not come out so I can see you?'_

'_Not while they're here.'_

"Who are you talking about?" Hogun asked.

"My friend, Darcy," Jane spoke up, waving at the warriors who had helped her and Thor escape Asgard. "She went to check on something, she'll be back in an hour or so."

She was an awful liar and none of the warriors seemed to believe her.

Hogun stepped up to the bed that Thor was laid upon and withdrew a small metal flask from his belt.

"What's in there?" Loki asked.

"A herbal remedy Eir made, it counteracts the effects of the Obedience Potion."

"He will sleep for an hour to two, while the potion is removed from his system," Volstagg explained.

"So it's safe to remove the bindings," Sif added.

Knowing that Thor would be unconscious for a few minutes once it was removed, Loki did so and watched as Hogun dripped the cure into his mouth.

"You're hurt," Jane said to Loki. "Do you want me to clean your wounds?"

Loki smiled at her. "Thank you, but I will be fine. Thor may appreciate your efforts however."

As she approached Thor's bedside, Loki stepped back.

"So, is this a social visit?" he asked of the warriors.

"Why did you save him?" Sif demanded.

"Thor is _my_ brother, and I don't like people playing with my belongings."

Sif glared.

"In other words, if anyone is going to harm Thor, it will be you," Fandral said with a wry smile.

"Exactly," Loki agreed with an answering smirk. "Was there anything else I can help you with, or do you need to be getting back." He clearly hoped it was the latter.

"We have come seeking Angrboða," Sif answered. "And you would be wise not to keep her from us."

"I regret to inform you, I know no one of that name."

"You call her Lisa," Fandral explained.

"Ah, the mortal I was tied to, of course. I'm afraid I do not know her whereabouts at the moment."

"Don't lie, Loki," Sif stepped forward, challenging him.

"I have been away for ten hours or more, how could I know her whereabouts? But feel free to search the tower block, I have nothing to hide."

"We will," Sif assured him, beginning with the medical bay.

'_Keep absolutely quiet,'_ Loki warned. _'I will shield you with an illusion; you will see her but she will not see you.'_

'_Are you sure?'_

'_Positive.'_

Loki kept his composure as Sif opened the closet door and she detected nothing abnormal and moved on. When she had searched every possible hiding place in there, she moved onto the next room.

"I will find her," she assured Loki.

"I don't doubt it, perhaps you might try her quarters, that is often where people can be found."

Sif finished checking the med bay rooms and with one final glare at Loki, she Volstagg and Hogun went to search the rest of the building. Fandral stayed to oversee Thor, and flirt with Jane.

"Well, if you will excuse me, I believe a hot bath is in order," Loki said. He had been pretty bloodied up, even if he was almost healed once more. Before he left, he placed Mjolnir at the end of Thor's bed, ready for when he awoke.

Fandral paid him little mind and he left.

'_Keep calm, I'm coming back,'_ he told Lisa when he felt a spike of panic from her. Once out of sight, he teleported into the closet Lisa was hiding in and pulled her into his arms.

'_I'm so sorry, dear one.'_

Lisa clung to him. '_I was mad at you, but I'm more mad at everyone else now. Besides, when I went through my memories, I felt your horror, I know you didn't mean to hurt me.'_

'_And I have missed your presence more than I can say. I am rarely worried, but you achieved it.'_

When she pulled away, she reached a hand towards a cut on his face. '_You're hurt!'_

'_It's nothing, almost healed already. Did Jane tell you where I was?'_

She nodded. _'And she gave me the file you left with her.'_

'_We need to talk about this. Let's go somewhere more private.'_

He held his hand out towards her and she grasped it.

'_Thanks for asking, for a change.'_

The teleporting experience was much easier for her now and they materialised in a hotel suite.

'_Will we be okay here?'_

'_We will, the unit is not occupied.'_

'_You need a bath first,'_ she said, and he could tell that she wanted the blood washed off so she could see the extent of her injures for herself.

'_Any excuse to get me naked, is this how it's going to be from now on?'_

She smiled but it was a pale reflection of her usual one.

She ran the bath, a large sunken tub in the corner of the enormous bathroom and with a long sigh, he sank into the water.

Lisa found a wash cloth and climbed into the tub to begin to gently bathing his wounds.

'_How long have you been awake?'_ he asked.

'_Not long. Maybe thirty minutes before you came in.'_

'_You were hiding from the warriors.'_

He didn't phrase it as a question but she nodded regardless.

'_How much of your file were you able to read?' he asked._

'_Just the beginning, about my birth parents. They did an autopsy on my parents, they… they were Frost Giants, weren't they?'_

Loki nodded. _'So it would seem.'_

'_But why would they come to earth? Why did they look human? Why do I look human?'_

'_Those questions I cannot answer.'_

'_And SHIELD has been watching me since then because they realised that I was an alien.'_

'_That would be the likely conclusion, especially given the findings of the autopsies.'_

'_But I was human then, wasn't I?'_

'_You appeared human. You aged at the same rate and of course, had the superficial appearance of a human.'_

'_Who would do that to me?'_

'_I know of only one incident like it,'_ he confessed. _'When Odin took me from Jotunheim and made me his son.'_

'_My whole life is a lie, isn't it?' _she said with sorrow.

'_Perhaps not everything. Your adoptive parents don't appear to have known of your origins… Just like Thor didn't know of mine.'_

'_If that's true, where are they now? My dad is a tenured professor, you don't just walk away from Tenure.'_

'_You must read the entire document,' _he explained_. _

'_Why?"_

'_Because your father and sister are on a_ _SHIELD base.'_

"What!"

'_I know, dear one, but they don't seem to be in any danger, so we must play this tactically. Before you finish the file, I want your solemn promise that you will not do anything rash.'_

'_You have it.' _Lisa trusted him and his strategic mind.

'_Then let us dress and look through it together.'_

'_No. First I just want to forget for a while.'_ Her hand slipped under the water to grab his manhood. _'I haven't checked here for wounds yet.'_

Her attempt at humour wasn't heartfelt, but her desire was. Besides, after a whole day of worrying about her (and his brother) he could use the relief as well.

* * *

AN: The character of Lisa is loosely based on Angrboða from Norse mythology, a shapeshifting Frost Giant who took Loki as her lover and bore him three children, although I have, obviously, taken huge liberties with the story and character.

Updates are probably going to slow down as frankly, this story isn't very popular and I have other manuscripts that need my attention. There should only be another three or four chapters to go though so it won't take months to finish. If you like historical fiction though, one of my kindle books is free on Amazon for the next 3 days (and if you don't have a kindle, Amazon do free kindle apps for almost all devices) so hopefully that will tide you over for a while.


	12. Chapter 12

Norse Proverb: There's no excusing the man who rejects the truth once it's proven

**Chapter Twelve **

'_So my birth mum and dad were aliens.' _It was still taking her some time to wrap her head around that fact. _'I wonder if that's why they were so miserable. If I'd just been dumped on some strange planet, I might be prone to drown my sorrows in anything I could get my hands on.'_

They were reclining on one of the plush sofa's in the hotel suite.

'_Trust me, I've been to places not just alien, but completely unknown. They chose to give up.'_

'_These are my parents you're talking about!'_ she turned to face him.

'_Who were addicts and who tried to kill you.'_

She huffed but couldn't argue with him, so instead she began scrolling through the contents of the tablet. She knew from Loki's trepidation that there was worse to come.

'_Does that say what I think it does?' _She pointed to the text in question.

'_Your wounds showed signs of healing once you got to hospital.' _he confirmed.

'_But how is that even possible? According to the police report, they got to the scene less than five minutes after the neighbours heard screams and called 999.'_

'_The same way I healed you, magic.'_

'_But I didn't have magic then,'_ she argued. _'I still don't.'_

'_You have always had it, it just wasn't very noticeable, rather like breasts, everyone has them, but they only become noticeable when puberty causes a female's breasts to swell and mature. When you were mortally wounded, you called on your magic, instinctively.'_

'_But how did I know to do that?'_

'_You didn't. I have heard stories of remarkable strength in times of crisis. An mother of average strength but who's child is trapped under a vehicle, can sometimes summon the strength to lift it off. To put it in your _scientific_ terms,' _he said with derision_, 'she doesn't leave her child to find an epinephrine injection, rather her body recognises the crisis and floods her body with natural adrenalin, thus allowing her to perform a minor miracle. Your body knew you were grievously injured and did what it had to do to save you.' _

'_Why didn't my mum and sister heal themselves?'_

'_Magical aptitude is a talent. Had they trained, perhaps they could have compensated for their lack of natural ability but they didn't.'_

It sounded reasonable enough.

Although his matter of fact explanations might seem harsh to many, she needed that right now. It seemed silly to shed tears for relatives she lost over 20 years ago, and whom she could hardly remember any longer, but given all the revelations and secrets coming out, if he showed her too much sympathy, she was afraid that she might give into the temptation to curl into a ball and revert to a catatonic state.

'_What do I look like?'_ she asked. '_My parents' autopsy noted an alien organ structure but all the pictures show my parents looking human.'_

'_Are you sure you want to know?'_ he asked, hesitantly.

Lisa nodded.

Odin had cursed Loki to look Asgardian, so it was Loki's default appearance. Still, he could weaken the curse, such as when he touched another Frost Giant, or the Casket of Ancient Winters. He could also use his own magic to reveal his original appearance, and he did so now.

'_Wow, that's actually kinda pretty.'_

'_Pretty?'_

'_Yeah. Then again, my favourite story growing up was the Snow Queen. Want to be my Snow King?'_

She could feel that he was fighting it, but he smirked nonetheless.

'_Can you do it to me?'_ she asked.

'_If you touch me while I am in this form, it should override your curse.'_

She reached out and took his hand. _'Oh, you're cold!'_ she said but she didn't let go, watching in awe as her skin turned blue. '_Come on!'_ She pulled him to his feet and over to the large mirror over the fireplace.

Loki looked stern but Lisa had a kind of fantastical smile on her face as the blue skin spread up her neck, eventually enveloping her face.

'_Oh, wow!'_

'_You like this appearance?'_ Loki asked.

'_Well don't get me wrong, I don't want to stroll down the high street looking like this but it's kinda cool. And the eyes, I could totally freak some people out with the eyes.' _She leaned her head on his shoulder. _'I think this would make a fantastic portrait. Especially with crowns and tiaras on, we'd be like the real Snow King and Queen.'_

'_You do know that story is fiction, don't you?_

'_That's what I used to think about Norse mythology,'_

He had to admit, she had a point.

Suddenly she giggled.

'_And what, pray tell, do you find so amusing?' _

'_Oh, stop being grumpy. Yes, to you the Frost Giants were monsters but you're the only Frost Giant I know and while you are vain, sarcastic and awkward, you aren't a monster. To me, looking like this is freaky but fun. And I was laughing because first, it's better that crying and second, two blue aliens are wearing bathrobes with the Waldorf Astoria logo embroidered on them.'_

Loki had to admit, their attire was a little comical.

Lisa dropped his hand and watched as the blue skin and red eyes faded. She let it get to her neck, then took his hand again, watching in awe as the blue covered her face once more.

'_Are you going to do this all night?'_

'_No, I just… I just want a distraction.'_

Loki pulled her to him and kissed the top of her head. _'Aren't you the one who says that the truth is always better than a comforting lie?'_

'_And I believe that… except when you discover that your whole life is a lie and you're just a pawn in someone else's game.'_

Loki tightened his grip. _'You aren't a pawn in my game.'_

'_I know, and thank you for that.'_ She buried her head in his shoulder. _'But things are really fucking screwed up when the God of Lies is the only one being honest with you.'_

He chuckled at the irony.

She held onto him for a few minutes longer, surprised that he was letting her, he didn't really strike her as the cuddly type, but then he probably had some empathy with her situation. Finally she pulled away, wiping her eyes as her blue pallor faded. Loki also allowed his normal appearance to reassert itself.

'_Okay, I'm ready for the rest. Or a little more of the rest, at least.'_

Loki guided her back over to the sofa and she reclined against him, her back to his chest, so he could read the tablet over her shoulder.

The file revealed that it was her parents autopsy results that alerted SHIELD to her alien origins, but by the time they learned of the unusual results (which the pathologist had been put down to birth defects) she had already been adopted by the first foster family who took her in.

They tried to void the adoption, bringing her 'grandmother' out of the woodwork to contest it, but the judge hadn't been interested. To explain the fact she hadn't taken Lisa in earlier and that Lisa didn't know her at all, the grandmother had to say that her daughter had cut her out of their lives, thanks to their addiction problems. The judge however, wasn't about to hand a happy child over to a relative she didn't remember, let alone one who had raised an addict, so she was denied custody but allowed visitation rights.

Lisa wondered what Shield would have done to her if they had managed to fool the courts and void her adoption. She shuddered to think.

Instead SHIELD went to plan B and implanted a tracking device in her tooth.

'_Oh my god.'_

'_What is it?' Loki asked._

She began scrolling through the agents' reports and pointed to the agent's photo, which along with their name, security clearance and shield number, was displayed on the heading of each report.

'_She was my social worker,' _swipe._ 'And she was my therapist. He was my English teacher, and he was my form teacher for two years. He was my career counsellor.'_ She stopped pausing on each photograph and just zipped through them. _'GP, A'level English teacher, professor…'_

'_What?' _he asked as her words trailed off.

Lisa held the tablet up so he could better see. _'He was my first boyfriend.' _She wasn't sure how much more of this she could stand. _'My whole life feels like a play, like I'm staring in the Truman Show or something.'_

'_The what?'_

'_It's a movie, a man's entire life is faked so the public can watch him in a reality TV show.'_

'_An apt analogy.'_

Lisa sighed. _'There's worse to come, isn't there?'_ she could tell from his emotions.

'_Yes.'_

'_Will you tell me? I don't want to read any more.'_

She put the tablet down and turned into him, wrapping her arms about his waist and resting her head on his chest.

Loki was actually hesitant to tell her and considering that he usually enjoyed being abrasive, that worried her more than anything.

'_Your sister's cancer is not organic in origin. Shield realised that you had healed yourself as a child and they wanted to provoke you into using your powers. At that time, they knew you were an alien but they had no idea where you were from or what your abilities were, other than telepathy. From your hospital report, they suspected you had other gifts, such as the ability to heal, and powers often assert themselves during times of stress.'_

'_Oh my God.'_

'_They were just beginning to doubt that you could heal her, when Thor arrived, with one of Odin's advisors, Grand Thane, to broker a deal for the bonding.'_

'_Thor is in on this?'_

'_I am unsure how much he knows, but subterfuge is not his style. He is as noble as he seems, so I'm inclined to think that he is my father's pawn, as are we all. It seems that Thane revealed your affiliation with the Gods to SHIELD, while Thor approached and brokered a deal with you.'_

'_Do you think Odin sent my family here?'_

'_I think he sent your parents here. It appears that you were born on earth.'_

'_And what of my dad and Sarah?'_

'_When SHIELD learned that your agreement with Thor was contingent on your sister being cured with alien technology, they saw an opportunity to appropriate that alien technology. As soon as you left them, your family were moved to a SHIELD facility in England, made to appear like a private clinic. They monitored Eir while she healed your sister but the scientists couldn't figure out how it was done. Ever since, they have been running tests on Sarah, trying to discover how she was cured.'_

'_That's why my calls to them are monitored.'_

'_Yes.'_

'_I thought not being able to see them was for their protection, not…'_

She began to cry, and Loki held her, rocking her gently. He was almost tempted to coo softly to her but damn it, he needed to retain some prickly edges, even with her.

He felt her laugh for a moment as he thought that.

'_I am never going to be able to keep a secret from you, am I?'_

'_Probably not,' _she agreed,_ 'but you can have fun trying.'_

Loki laughed and kissed the top of her head.

'_I expected you to be, what is it you mortals say, '_freaking out_' more.'_

'_Oh, I think I have a lot of freaking out to do in the not too distant future, and maybe a few heads to knock. Oh, and am I still mortal?'_

'_I- No, no, you aren't. Well, technically you will die, but your lifespan will be that of a Frost Giant, four to seven thousand years, assuming you die of old age.'_

'_What caused this?'_ she asked, surprising him.

'_What caused you to change?'_

She nodded.

'_I believe that's my fault. Magic is a talent like another and even humans can possess magical abilities, they just don't have the same time to learn how to harness it as we do. I hoped that by giving you a little of my magic, I could boost your telepathy, which would enable you to find Thor. I should have asked but the pain of the transfer is usually fleeting and…'_

'_It's okay, I'm not looking for an apology. I already know you're a jerk.'_

His lips twitched in a small smile. _'I believe that when I gave you a dose of Frost Giant magic, it awakened your dormant DNA, creating a chain reaction.'_

'_Like when I touched you in your Frost Giant form?'_

'_Exactly, but more permanent.'_

'_So why didn't it happen when you healed me?'_

'_Because I wasn't giving you my magic but rather, I was using my magic on you.'_

'_That makes sense, I guess.' _She turned the idea over in her mind. _'Was that supposed to happen, do you think?'_

'_Part of the plan of bonding us together?'_

'_Yeah.'_

'_Hard to say with certainty. It sounds like Odin but there again, the circumstances that caused me to share my magic with you were extreme. I don't see how Odin could have predicted Thor being kidnapped.'_

'_He could have orchestrated it.'_

'_He could, but I doubt he would do anything to harm Jane Foster, he knows Thor would rebel if he did, and why was the Hulk the first target? No, I think it far more likely that this was an unforeseen accident.' _

Lisa sighed. _'Those warriors guys are here for me, aren't they?'_

'_You're the telepath but yes, I expect so.'_

'_Do you think they know why my parents were exiled?'_

'_Possibly. With any luck, they will also know why you were chosen to bond with me.'_

'_You definitely disabled that tracking device in my tooth, right?' she asked. _

'_I did, why?'_

'_Because I think we should do what we did in the hospital, try and read their minds before they spin some BS story.'_

'_Forewarned is forearmed,'_ Loki agreed, with a proud smile. _'I'll make a warrior of you yet.'_

'_Yeah, I'd really rather you didn't. No offence, but unless it's in self-defence or we're fighting the Nazi's, I'm pretty much a pacifist.' _

'_Oh, tell me it isn't so!'_ He grasped his chest theatrically, earning himself an elbow in his ribs. _'Hey! I thought you were a pacifist?'_ he teased.

'_Yeah? Well I thought I was human, things change, roll with the punches.'_

Her ability to joke so soon was a testament to her resilience, but he had little doubt she still had serious issues, bubbling away just below her calm veneer.

'_Actually, speaking of veneers, I thought you might be able to help with something.' _She sat up, turning serious.

'_Hmm?'_

'_While I was unconscious, my mind seemed to rebuild itself and since then, my telepathy is off the charts.'_

'_Is that a bad thing?'_

'_In some ways, no, I can turn it off now or at least, confine it to just hearing you (I don't seem to be able to stop hearing your thoughts) but the problem is, when it's on, I hear everything in like a hundred meter radius.'_

'_You can learn to sift through the data, a little like...'_ he tried to think of an earth analogy. _'A radio, you can tune a radio into one frequency, correct?'_

'_I was hoping for something a little more sophisticated than that.'_

'_Oh?'_

'_I've seen you astral project in your memories, you can create dozens of avatars.' _

'_Avatars?'_

'_I don't know what they're called, the other versions of you.'_

'_Avatars is fine, I like that word.'_

'_I'm so pleased,'_ she said with sarcasm. _'The point is, you can control each avatar and see through their eyes, individually and I was thinking, maybe I could read each mind like that, especially now I've had an Extreme Mind Makeover.'_

'_Are you actually speaking English?'_

'_I'm not above slapping you!'_ She could tell that he was teasing her to distract her.

'_Very well.'_ He didn't see the correlation but he explained it to her, in the most human ways he could. Then he created avatars of himself while she was in his mind, so she could see for herself how each one was controlled separately, while still being part of the whole.

After his demonstration, she brought him into her mind and turned her power back on. He could see her problem, it was like living in a crowded ballroom, just a mass of indistinguishable voices. It was surprising how may brain waves she was picking up in a Hotel shouldn't be that densely populated.

'_Think about there being two versions of you, you're splitting into two,' _he schooled.

It took a few tries but eventually she pictured two of herself in her mind, but they were more like reflections, mimicking each other perfectly. He coached her on using each separately, as one can use the right hand independently of the left. When she had achieved that, he coached her to keep dividing the versions of herself. It would feel odd but he assured her that each version of herself was both a part of the whole and able to operate autonomously. With practice she could create enough versions of herself to assign one to each voice she heard, and it would become so easy that it would become as automatic as breathing.

It took her over an hour to use the technique well and it was far from perfected, but Loki seemed impressed with how quickly she was learning. She wasn't nearly good enough to use this technique around a lot of people yet but as an interim measure, he was able to teach her how to turn the 'power' down, so her range for hearing people wasn't as great.

'_Do you think you're ready to infiltrate Stark Tower?'_ Loki asked.

'_Yeah. It's higher than this hotel and has fewer occupants, so there should be fewer minds to distract me.'_

They got to their feet and Loki conjured outfits for them. He wore his usual leather and green armour and for her, he conjured something very similar but with blue accents and silver armour plates.

'_You have a thing for dressing us alike,'_ she pointed out.

Loki shrugged, unperturbed. _'What can I say, I'm territorial.'_

Lisa shifted a bit in the outfit, testing it out. _'Jesus, this is heavy, is it all leather?'_

'_Leather and metal, and its armour, so of course it's heavy.'_

'_Are we going in to battle?'_

'_Possibly, but this isn't full armour, that would be this.'_

And with a wave of his hand, a flash of green light, more metal appeared on her outfit, and a rather fetching blue cape that she could see no practical use for.

'_Your enemies have a very definite advantage if you're wearing this.' _She tugged at the collar.

'_You get used to it.'_ Another gesture wave rid the costume of the additions, then he held out his hand towards her. '_Come, we have much to do._'

Lisa accepted his hand and allowed him to teleport her into the Stark Tower, making them invisible as soon as they arrived.

'_Medical bay first,'_ Loki said. _'I want to check on Thor.'_

Lisa couldn't argue with that and as luck would have it, the Asgardians were all there talking to Thor, who was now sitting on the edge of his bed, his arm around Jane.

Everyone else had returned from the SHIELD helicarrier as well and were the room with Thor and his friends, all except Fury.

Although Loki couldn't hear them from the other side of the glass panel, Lisa could hear their thoughts and Loki could hear through her.

"-my friends," Thor beamed. "However, I fear your trip has been in vain; as you can see, I'm fine."

"We were worried about you," Fandral lied. "Can you blame us?"

"Indeed I cannot, and it is good to see you."

"No ill effects?" Hogun asked.

"A slight headache but it is fading as we speak. All's well that ends well, I suppose. And where is Loki, I must thank him for his part in rescuing me."

Someone had obviously told him what had happened on the Collector's ship.

The warriors shared a look.

"The Allfather wishes Loki to return to Asgard with us," Sif said. "However, we have been unable to find him."

"Is there a problem?" Thor asked, sounding concerned.

"Not that we have been informed of."

'_She's right,'_ Lisa told Loki. _'Odin hasn't told them why he wants us back.' _

'_Us?'_

'_She may have only spoken of you but we're both to return.'_

'_Where is Fury?'_ Loki asked.

'_He's in the room that Barton and Romanoff were using, he has two other agents there with him.'_

'_So what now?'_ He asked.

'_Let's see if these warriors are friend or foe.'_

Loki teleported them out into the hallway and made them visible, so they could stroll back in as if nothing untoward had happened.

"Hey look," Stark noticed them first. "It's Goldilocks and Lokilocks, and in matching outfits too. Does this mean you're engaged now?"

"Brother!" Thor smiled as he saw them. He got off the bed and embraced Loki in a hug, which Loki found rather uncomfortable. "It is good to see you. And I am told I owe you my thanks for a very daring rescue."

"It was nothing," Loki answered.

"It hardly sounds like nothing. You risked your life for me, brother and I want you to know, I appreciate it."

A small smile tugged on Loki's lips. "Well, I couldn't let someone else harm you; that's my job."

Thor laughed, and Lisa thought she was seeing a glimpse of their old relationship, rivals but also friends.

Thor looked over Loki's shoulder. "And Lady Lisa, I understand you were quite unwell for a while."

"I was, but I'm recovered now, thank you."

"Glad to hear it." Thor looked around at the other Avengers. "I think this calls for a celebration, does it not?"

"You think everything calls for celebration," Loki teased.

"And why not? We are alive, with the women we love and all is right with the world."

Loki's gaze shot to Lisa on the words 'women we love' but he didn't contradict Thor. Lisa didn't need to wonder how he felt, if he was in love or not, or what his gaze meant. Since she had woken up, she could tell that his feelings for her had deepened and her absence, as the saying goes, had made his heart grow fonder. It wasn't love as she understood it, but their connection was deeper than anything she had ever had before.

"Indeed," Loki smiled at Lisa.

"We must return to Asgard first," Sif argued. "The Allfather wishes to see you all."

"Did he say why?" Thor asked.

"He did not, but Loki and the human are to accompany us."

'_She doesn't know you aren't human,'_ Loki realised.

"I'm afraid I can't go anywhere at the moment," Lisa spoke aloud for the first time. "I've been reading my SHIELD file and my father and sister have been taken by SHIELD, they're being held captive in England while scientists study Sarah, to find out how your healer was able to cure her. I won't leave until they're released."

Only Stark and Loki didn't react, because they had already seen her file, but she was reassured from the other's behaviour and thoughts, that they hadn't known about this.

"I wish I could say that I was surprised," Bruce said with a sigh.

"You knew?" Loki asked, anger in his voice.

"No, but I've heard talk of something called Project T.A.H.I.T.I. It's all very hush hush, but I'm told it deals with longevity and resurrection. And of course, they were more than a little interested in the serum Steve Roger's took, and what happened to me."

Lisa was reading Romanoff and Barton's minds. Unlike other SHIELD agents, their thoughts had never been scrambled to her. Lisa could tell that while disappointed in Fury, they weren't shocked if he had done something like this.

"Do you know where they're holding your family?" Thor asked.

Lisa nodded. "A SHIELD base under the North York Moors."

"Then I say we-"

"We don't have time for this," Sif interrupted. "The Allfather requests your return urgently."

Loki was about to snap an answer but Lisa stopped him with a hand on his forearm. She stepped towards Sif.

"I understand that you have a job to do, but I have a family to protect and I am not leaving until they are safe. You can either help me and things might go a bit faster, or we can see if my mental abilities outweigh your physical prowess. Personally, I'd rather the former."

"We will help you," Fandral said.

"But-" Hogun tried to interrupt.

"There are times when we have disobeyed orders for the greater good, have we not? To refuse aid to this young lady, would be very bad form on our parts."

Volstagg agreed and with varying degrees of reluctance, the other warriors fell into line.

"Wow, I suddenly feel like a fifth wheel," Tony said.

"We will all go," Thor assured him. "The more of us there are, the easier this will be."

As if on cue, Fury walked into the room. Lisa turned to glare at Barton, who she realised had pressed some kind of button to summon him. If she had better control of her telepathy, she would have noticed him doing it, rather than realising it after the fact.

Fury found himself facing a wall of people, their emotions varying from disgruntled, to fuming.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"Yes, actually." She answered.

Thor stood just behind her on her left, Loki to the right, the four warriors lined up beside them and the rest of the Avengers completed the wall. The only people not presenting a united front, were Natasha and Clint, who were standing apart, not on Lisa's side but nor were they on Fury's.

"Why have you kidnapped my family?" Lisa was angry enough that she wasn't afraid of Fury any more, especially not with the backup she had.

"Now hold up, they aren't prisoners, they're our guests."

Suddenly Fury gave a small cry if pain, and Lisa realised she had caused it. How, she didn't know, but it must be a little like when she had mentally yelled at Loki, making him flinch. This was different though, more like the mental version of an electric shock.

"Every time you lie, I'll do that again. I don't know how much a human brain can take before it fries."

She had no intention of killing him but her friends didn't know that, and they looked uncomfortable.

'_I won't seriously harm him,' _she broadcast her thoughts to them._ 'I don't even know if I could, but he doesn't know that,'_

"Care to try again?" she asked Fury.

"Studying your sister could save countless lives."

"Really? How many other people has SHIELD given leukaemia to then?"

Fury's pallor took on a decidedly grey tint. "We didn't-"

She shocked him again and he put his hands to his head.

"This isn't you, Lisa," Fury tried to plead with her. "This is Loki's influence."

"Loki hasn't lied to me, Loki hasn't tagged me like cattle, Loki hasn't paid agents to pretend to be my Grandmother and try to take me away from the only people who loved me. He hasn't paid people to pretend to be my friends, my boyfriends and my teachers. Loki didn't give my sister cancer to see if I had the ability to heal her, and he is not the one holding her hostage now, performing vivisection on her. If anyone is responsible for my anger, it's _you_!"

"What is it that you want?" Fury asked.

"I want my family to be freed, and I want SHIELD out of our lives for good."

"And if we don't?"

"We're going to get them," Stark surprised her by speaking up. "All of us, apparently."

Fury evaluated her as he thought her ultimatum over. Whatever he had been using to shield his thoughts previously was no longer working, because she could hear him weighing up the pros and cons. In the end, he decided that it would be better to release her family and keep Thor, the Asgardians and the Avengers onside. He had a feeling he was going to need them soon, but she was too distracted to pursue that thought any further and wonder why he would need them.

"I wasn't lying, studying your sister could save countless lives."

"So could asking the Asgardians to share their healing technology with you. You either asked and were turned down; knew they would turn you down if asked, or you just thought it was easier and more discrete to kidnap and dissect a human. How many gifted humans has your organisation unjustly imprisoned or killed over the years, because you were afraid of them?"

"How do you-"

"The fridge, don't you call it?" she cut him off. His mind was just brimming with SHIELDs secrets. "Has any prisoner there received a trial? Even just one person? Surely you can give me one single, solitary name of someone who was found guilty at trial?"

Fury held her gaze but didn't answer.

"You rage about what Loki did when the truth is, you don't care about human life any more than he did."

'_Nicely put,'_ Loki complimented her.

'_Thank you.'_

"That's not true," Fury argued, but he was losing the will to continue fighting a losing battle. "Sometimes we have to make difficult choices for the greater good."

"Giving my sister cancer was for the greater good?"

Fury sighed. "I'll have your family brought here immediately."

"Just like that?" She was surprised he had acquiesced so easily.

"I know when to surrender," he said.

Lisa tried to sift through his thoughts, certain that he must be trying to deceive her in some way, but she could see no signs of it.

"You will all have to sign confidentiality agreements," Fury went on.

"Which will include a clause saying they can't sue, right?" Stark added. "I love how SHIELD picks and chooses which parts of the law it wants to enforce."

"Your family will be here in twenty four hours," Fury said, turning away and gesturing for Romanoff and Barton to follow.

"That will give us enough time to return to Asgard to see the Allfather," Hogun suggested.

Lisa was torn, what if they didn't let her and Loki come back? There were so many unknowns about this situation and she didn't know that to do for the best.

Lisa turned to Steve. "If I don't come back, will you make sure he keeps his word, please? My family don't deserve this."

"I will," Steve assured her. "Will you be all right going back to Asgard? We'll go with you if you want."

"Thank you, but I'd rather you all stayed here to look out for my family."

"We've got your back," Banner assured her.

"Yep," Tony agreed. "You go gallivanting across the stars, we've got this."

"Thank you all," she said. "Hopefully, I'll see you soon."

Taking Loki's hand for courage, she followed the warriors out of the room. Thor dawdled to say his goodbyes but joined them on the roof as soon as he was done.


	13. Chapter 13

Norse Proverb: The eyes of a maid, tell true, to whom her love she has given.

**Chapter Thirteen**

If possible, Lisa felt even more nervous about being on Asgard the second time, than when she was bonded with Loki. She had a feeling that her life was about to change in a very big way, and she didn't like that idea one bit.

_'Try to relax,'_ Loki told her as they approached the palace on horseback.

_'Good advice, considering that you don't want to be here any more than I do.'_

It was true, he had a sense of foreboding over his own fate, but he had faith that Thor would do everything he could to keep Lisa safe.

They dismounted and the warriors led them not to the throne room as expected, but to Frigga's rooms.

"What is the meaning of this?" Thor asked his friends.

"Your father told us to bring you here," Volstagg said, and the warriors took positions guarding the door, two either side.

Thor and Loki shared a look, then entered their mother's rooms, Lisa practically being dragged in by Loki.

Odin, while still grand and powerful, looked more human as they entered. His back was to them as he perused the book shelves and his staff was missing.

"Come in," he told them.

"Father, what are we doing here?" Thor asked.

Odin turned to them where they stood by the doors; he looked rather more haggard than Lisa remembered but then, she hadn't been this close to him before.

"Sit." Odin gestured to a cluster of chairs, where a jug and goblets had been laid out on the middle table. "We have much to discuss," he said as he took a seat and filled four goblets with drink.

All three sat on the sofa opposite Odin and picked up the goblets that Odin handed them, although only Thor took a sip. Lisa was so nervous that she wasn't sure she could keep anything down at the moment, while Loki was wary of poisons or drugs. Lisa tried to read Odin's mind but she was unable to; he was as blank as a marble statue to her.

"As you know," Odin began, "the universe is not eternal; there was a beginning and there will be an end."

They listened closely, though they had no idea of his point.

"When I traded my eye for wisdom, I saw that not only is there an end, but that the universe repeats itself, on an endless cycle. The same events inevitably leading to the end of the universe time and again."

"Father-"

Odin held a hand up to stop Thor. "All in good time, my son." He sipped his drink. "Those Who Sit Above In Shadow showed me a giantess living in Iron Wood, Angrboða, who would give birth to three children, and those children would be pivotal in bringing about Ragnarok, the end of the universe. I searched for her, day and night, for centuries, but could find no trace of her. Then word reached me of a pregnancy in Jotunheim, with the child to be named Angrboða, and I sought to kill the mother, before the offspring could be born."

Lisa recognised the name Angrboða, from when her mind was rebuilding itself.

"Frigga convinced me not to, for the child was surely innocent and undeserving of a death sentence. She convinced me to send the family to Midgard to live among mortals, reasoning that humanity's influence might make Angrboða less predictable to Those Who Sit Above In Shadow, who manipulate events in each cycle to ensure that the Ragnarok occurs. I also hoped that it might teach her some humanity and that she in turn would pass that onto her children and possibly, their father."

"I don't understand," Thor implored.

"No, I suppose you don't," Odin refilled his goblet and took another long drink. "Angrboða's parents did not take to life on Earth and eventually, it drove them mad. The father sought to kill his wife, Angrboða and her younger sister, Iárnvidia, then himself. He was only partly successful; Angrboða lived."

Odin looked into Lisa's eyes, and she knew, even without her telepathy, that she was Angrboða.

"I kept a close eye on the child and saw that she was taken into a loving home and grew into a warm and caring person."

"But I don't have any children," she said, which was rather a foolish thing to say. It wasn't like she was infertile, after all.

"Not yet."

She felt a spike of jealousy from Loki but if her suspicions were correct, he had nothing to worry about.

"Did you mean for me to change back?" she asked.

"It was not planned but I knew that being around Loki, your true origins would eventually be revealed. At that point, I planned to remove the curse you had inherited from your parents, but Loki took away the need for that. I realise it is a shock and I had hoped that I might find a way to break it to you gently. Alas, it was not to be."

"Why did you pick me to bond with Loki?" she asked. She thought she knew but she needed to hear him say it.

"That too was Frigga's idea. Exile to earth had taught Thor humility and Frigga believed that loving a human might do the same for Loki."

"Except I'm not human, am I?"

"No," Odin agreed. "But you do possess human values about truth, justice and fairness. Before she…"

His words were choked off and Odin had never looked more human that he did in that moment.

"Before she died, she tried to convince me to give fate a helping hand."

Lisa felt Loki's grip on her hand tighten, as he realised that he was the father of her apocalyptic children. He gave no other reaction though.

"She tried to tell me that you would be good for my son, but I… I refused to listen to her. I think on some level, she knew what was coming, she..." He swallowed down his grief. "I wouldn't give into her pleas to bond you and Loki, but she did manage to extract from me a promise, that no matter what happened, I would not give up on my youngest son."

Loki was feeling a huge tangle of emotions, from love to rage and the whole gamut in between.

"I can see now that although my intentions were good, the secrets I have kept and the lies I have told, mean that Loki no longer considers me a father but-" He finally looked into Loki's eyes. "Do not blame Thor or Frigga for my failings. Thor knew nothing of my deception, and Frigga loved you with all her heart, you were every bit as much her son as Thor and in many ways, you and she had more in common."

Lisa could feel a sharp retort on the tip of Loki's tongue.

_'Don't,' _she pleaded. '_He's trying to apologise and while you might not be ready to forgive, this could be the first step towards healing.'_

_'Don't shrink me!'_

_'Don't act like a pedantic child, and I won't.'_

_'How can you sit there and listen to how he has played god with your life, and not hate him?'_

Lisa turned to look at Loki and after a moment, he tore his gaze from Odin and looked at her. He was glaring but his expression softened, and the look Thor and Odin shared said that they had noticed.

_'Yeah, I'm angry, but if he hadn't meddled, I wouldn't have my dad and Sarah and you.'_ she explained. _'It sucks to be a pawn in someone else's game but I choose to see what I have, rather than what he took. You've already lost your Mum-'_

His eyes flashed red for a second and for a moment, his anger literally overpowered her.

_'But you still have a shot with Thor.'_ She finished her thought. _'And don't try to tell me he means nothing to you, I have your memories, remember. Yeah, you hate him, but you love him in equal measure too. That's what siblings do, you fight and you argue and you compete and call each other names, but woe betide someone else who tries to hurt your sibling. Please don't let your anger for Odin ruin that.'_

Her words brought up a flood of memories, both of he and Thor, as well as Lisa and her sister, Sarah. Other than the levels of violence involved, there wasn't much difference between the relationships.

Lisa gave him a reassuring smile.

_'Please, try and keep things with your father Civil.'_

_'That's a very tall order.'_

_'I know, but you have another five thousand years to live, give or take, and Odin isn't going to be round for that much longer, relatively speaking.' _

_'Easier said than done.'_

_'We have a saying on earth, don't cut off your nose to spite your face. Anything you do to hurt Odin will also hurt you, and I can't bear to feel you in pain.'_

She could tell the moment he decided to take her advice, as his anger levels dropped, not completely, but they just cooled from rage to seething.

Loki looked to Odin and after a moment that felt more like an eternity, he nodded.

"I know you did not do that for me, Loki, but I thank you anyway." Odin topped up the goblets, although his was the only one with a discernable drop in the level.

"Heimdall has been keeping a watch on you, and I am sufficiently impressed with your behaviour that I will be removing the curse to limit your magic."

Loki blinked.

_'Say thank you.' _Lisa scolded.

_'I will not.' _

"Midgard has been attracting the interest of many realms and many foes of late, but it is not sufficiently advanced to truly defend itself from adversaries such as Tivan. It is my hope that you will return to Midgard with Thor and help him protect that realm, while also schooling Angrboða-"

"Her name is Lisa." They were the first words Loki had spoken to his father and despite the cutting tone, Odin simply nodded.

"While also schooling _Lisa_ on what to means to be a member of the Aesir. Whether she wishes to become a warrior is up to her but regardless, she can learn much from you."

"It would be fun to have another fighter in the family," Thor smiled at her.

She managed a grimacing smile in return; she was just barely managing to keep up with these revelations.

"And what of our children, if we have any?" Lisa felt compelled to ask. Even with a human time frame, she had not felt her biological clock ticking, far from it in fact, she wanted to finish her PhD and start her own practice before starting a family. Now, knowing that she had thousands of years to live, children weren't even on her radar. Still, if her children were prophesised to be the cause of the apocalypse, she needed to know that they weren't going to be ripped from her, as her parents had been ripped from their people.

"I cannot say. We will be watching, we cannot ignore the danger but so long as they pose no threat, you and your kin will be left alone."

"I wish I could read your mind as you say that," she answered honestly.

Odin gave a mirthless laugh. "Yes, I dare say that you do. I am not consciously hiding my thoughts from you, child, but the Odinforce protects me from some higher forms magic."

"Is that why I could read your mind before but not now, because I've changed?"

"Yes, your telepathy evolved as your body did. The next king will inherit my Odinforce, also making him immune to many forms of telepathy."

_'In that case,' _she told Loki,_ 'I kind of hope you don't become king; you're an annoying git sometimes, but I'd miss having you in my head.'_

_'You say the sweetest things, Dear Heart.' _Loki's lips twitched as he did his best to hide his smile.

_'You know, I didn't used to be this sassy, I think your snark is rubbing off on me.'_

_'Good, it suits you.'_

"There just remains one thing more for me to give you," Odin said to Loki. Teaching forward, he pulled a cloth wrapped parcel off the low table and onto his lap, pealing the fabric off with reverence. Inside was a book, about twelve inches high by eight wide and four deep. "This is Frigga's journal."

He looked at it with reverence for a long moment, until he seemed to remember that he had company. He passed the book to Loki, who opened it up to a blank page. A quick search revealed all the pages to be blank.

"She enchanted it," Odin informed him. "She always said that a wife needed a place to keep her private thoughts so I never tried to read it, not until her death. I have been unable to break the enchantment but if anyone can, it is you."

"You want me to decrypt mother's private thoughts for you?" he said with scorn.

"No, no, it seems obvious that the words in there are not meant for me. If you can break her spell, then clearly they were meant for you."

Lisa swore she saw tears in Loki's eyes but he quickly blinked them back.

"Well then, I believe that concludes our business." Before her eyes, Odin was donning the persona of a king once more. "Will you be joining us for dinner?"

"I need to get back," Lisa admitted. "My family… well, I have a lot of explaining to do."

"As you wish. Thor?"

"I should very much like to stay, Father. I can return tomorrow."

Lisa could see that it was a sign of trust on Thor's part, his way of saying that he was no longer Loki's guardian.

"Then that is settled." Odin got to his feet, his sceptre appearing in his hand as he stood. He looked from Loki to Lisa.

"Can I ask a question?" Lisa wanted to know.

"Of course."

"The bonding ritual, can it be undone? Like it was supposed to be after five years?"

She felt, Loki's pain as she asked that but she would explain when they were alone.

"It can be ended, but not undone. The emotions you have formed during the bond and the memories that were shared, will remain a part of you forever."

"Thank you… Allfather." She inclined her head.

"Then for now, this is goodbye. Be safe, my children."

Lisa wondered if she had been left out of the farewell, or he thought of her as one of his children now but before she could decide, Odin strode towards the door, Thor following after.

"Oh, and Loki?" Odin turned back and Loki looked over to him. "I did not alter the enchantments on Mjolnir, it came to you because you were worthy of it."

He turned and walked out.

Loki and Lisa stayed sitting, and she could sense his anger.

"You want to end our bond?" Loki wasn't speaking to her telepathically and he wouldn't even look at her.

"No, I don't, I-"

"If you did not want to end it, you would not have asked."

"Oh, Loki, that's not it at all. The truth is… well, I love you."

"You have a very odd way of showing it."

"We have a saying on Earth, 'If you love someone, set them free; if they come back, they're yours. If they don't, they never were.' If we stay together, I need it to be because you want to stay with me, not because some magic is keeping us together. Knowing that we can end this at any time, reassures me that we're together for the right reasons, because we _both_ want it that way. So this is me setting you free, Loki; if you want to be rid of me, I won't argue."

Loki's frown slowly, almost grudgingly, turned in to a smile. "You know, for someone so young, you are surprisingly wise sometimes."

"Thanks… I think."

"My pleasure."

"Can we get back to telepathy now? Speaking aloud to you is a bit freaky."

_'Of course, Dear One.'_

_'Thank you. And I know you don't like Earth and aren't looking forward to returning but please, I'd like to stay with my family and considering our lifespan, is a hundred years or so really too much to ask?'_

_'I suppose not, as long as we can travel sometimes; I don't believe I would survive an unbroken century on Midgard.'_

_'Sounds okay to me,' _she smiled._ 'Apparently I have nine new universes to explore.'_

_'Well, they're not universes, so much as worlds within the universe. Realms, we call them.' _

_'See,' _she leaned over and stole a kiss._ 'You're teaching me already'_

Loki smirked. _'You had better be a good student, I'm not known for my patience as a teacher.'_

_'Is it wrong that that kind of turns me on? I think I might still have a catholic schoolgirl outfit from last Halloween'_

Loki frowned and Lisa grinned.

_Oh, Loki, you are in for a treat, my friend.'_

_'Friend?'_ He raised a quizzical eyebrow.

_'Are we more than friends? Boyfriend doesn't seem to cut it, nor significant other or partner. And I mean, we only had sex once so what, lovers? Fuck buddies? Friends with benefits? Oh god, my life has become some cheesy rom-com, only with an Alien!'_

_'Technically, we're the same species now.'_

_'Well that clears everything up.'_

Loki laughed, causing Lisa to elbow him.

_'Hush, dear one,'_ he tried to sooth her.

_'Oh, so we're _'dear ones'_ now, thanks, that explains everything.'_

_'If a definition means that much to you, the bonding ritual we went through is an ancient marriage rite.'_

_'Wait, what? We're married?' _Her jaw might have gaped a little._ 'I thought the people who said we were married were joking?'_

_'Technically, no, it isn't official; the marriage process has become a lot more complex since the days of magic rituals. Now the bonding is a quaint addition_ _that only a few couples choose to go through. Morally however, yes, we're man and wife.'_

Lisa frowned. _'Okay, no offence, you're hardly the most 'moral' of people.'_

Loki laughed. _'So we use the terms husband and wife for now. In a hundred years, if you can still stand the sight of me, we can make it official.'_

_'Wow… I guess you really like long engagements.'_

_'On Asgard it sometimes takes years just to finalise the marriage contracts.' _

_'That sounds, uh, really cold.'_

_'True, but when you agree to spend a few years with someone, you need to be sure.'_

_'Okay, I have officially had enough surprises for one day. No more reveals, secrets, hidden agendas or anything else until at least next week.'_

_'Deal. Now, since we may not get a chance to return to Asgard for another few years, how about we adjourn to my former rooms and consummate our union, Wife?'_

He stood up and offered her his hand.

_'Good idea, but don't call me that,'_

_'As you wish.'_

Loki swept Lisa into his arms, making her squeal a little in surprise, and carried her through the hallways, using magic to open and close the door to his chambers.

His rooms were sumptuous but Lisa was too busy kissing Loki to notice. He laid her down on his bed then crawled up the length of her body, leaving a trail of kisses on her skin as he magicked each item of clothing away.

_'Okay,'_ she said with a breathy sigh. _'You can call me 'wife' sometimes.'_

* * *

Lisa was full of trepidation as she watched the plane land from the observation deck. She turned to look at Loki who was standing beside her, holding her hand.

_'They won't blame you,'_ he assured her.

_'It feels like my fault. They made Sarah sick because of me, and they kidnapped her because I found her a cure. Plus, I've been lying to them. If I was Sarah, I think I might hate me.'_

_'Thankfully, I have your memories of them and if I am any judge of character, and I like to think that I am, she will simply be pleased to see you. Sentiment has its uses… sometimes.'_

Loki was in his black suit, looking classy and understated. She was in jeans, a t-shirt top and a sports jacket. They made an incongruous couple but she thought it was better than them looking like rejects from _Men in Black_.

Stark had offered them the use of a car and access to a villa in the Catskills that he would rarely used. It was secure and had Jarvis to keep watch on them, should they need help or assistance.

Lisa had no idea what her family had been through but she knew they would need time alone to process everything, and she was grateful to Stark for his offer.

They watched as the small plane taxied to the terminal and when it got close, they headed outside to wait on the tarmac. Two uniformed SHIELD agents accompanied her father and sister off the plane, and both their faces lit up when they saw her, although her father looked more guarded.

Lisa dropped his hand and ran to them, while Loki followed at a more sedate pace.

Her sister and father both looked tired and frightened, but they enveloped Lisa in a tight, three-way hug.

"We missed you," Sarah said, starting to cry.

"I missed you too." Her own tears fell.

Loki almost regretted interrupting them but here, on a military base, was not the place for the discussions to come.

"We should go," he said, stepping closer. "There will be time for this once we arrive."

Lisa pulled away from the hug and swiped the tears from her eyes. "He's right. You're so close to freedom, we shouldn't fall at the final hurdle. Come on."

She led them to Stark's BMW and although she could tell they had hundreds of questions, they simply got in to the backseat. They didn't seem to have any luggage.

In her haste to get away, Lisa wheel spun the car and barely gave the guards time to raise the gate, then she turned onto the highway and broke every speed law known to man.

"Am I going the right way, Jarvis?" In her haste to get away, she had totally forgotten the directions to the cabin. Luckily for her, Tony liked to have Jarvis on hand everywhere.

Her family looked to Loki, thinking he must be Jarvis, so they were surprised when the car answered her in an electronic voice.

_"Yes, you need to turn off this road in approximately five miles. I estimate that you are one hour and fifty two minutes from your destination."_

"Thank you."

_"Also, there is a police vehicle around the next bend, so I would recommend reducing your speed."_

"Thanks, Jarvis." Lisa eased up in the accelerator, and not a moment too soon to avoid being caught in the speed trap.

She could hear her family wondering who Jarvis was, and who the severe looking man in the passenger seat was.

"Sorry guys, this is Loki, my-" she hardly knew what he was to her, she hadn't stopped to consider what to call him to her family. She went with what felt most accurate. "My husband. Kind of."

She could feel her family's shock and Loki turned to face them in the back. "Very pleased to meet you."

"Uh, yeah, you too," Sarah said, thoroughly nonplussed by events.

"Husband?" Tim asked.

"It's a long story," Lisa said. "Tony Stark has loaned us a villa; once we're there and settled, I'll explain everything, I promise."

The rest of the journey was made in silence, except for a few telepathic conversations with Loki.

As she arrived at the gates Jarvis opened them and after driving up an obscenely long driveway, they pulled up to the house, which was massive, probably at least six bedrooms.

_"Welcome to Villa Maria,"_ Jarvis said as the car stopped. _"Would you care for some refreshments?"_

"I'll take care of that, Jarvis." Lisa got out of the car, feeling as jumpy as a cat on a hot tin roof. "Do you guys want to settle in first? Take a shower maybe? Or have a swim, there's a pool here apparently, and a sauna, or a drink? Tony has everything, I should know, I raided his bar at-"

Loki came around the car and grabbed her hand, looking into her eyes. Her family watched the silent communication, wondering what was happening.

"You're right," Lisa nodded to Loki, then turned to her family.

Tim and Sarah stood together, while Loki and Lisa faced them and although there was only four feet dividing them, it felt like a chasm to Lisa.

"Let's go inside," she said.

* * *

They were seated in the living area of the villa, with wonderful views out over the Catskill Mountains, which they all completely ignored.

After Lisa had fed and watered them, made tea and got a blanket for Sarah, she had finally run out of excuses and sat next to Loki, on the couch facing her family. He reached out and took her hand, giving her silent encouragement.

"I have no idea where to start," Lisa began. "I'm sorry I left you, I wasn't backpacking around the world, I wouldn't do that to you."

"Where were you?" Tim asked.

"To cut a long story short, I made a deal with some Asgardians, if I would do something for them, they would heal Sarah. Then SHIELD stuck their noses in and said that I couldn't tell you the truth, they said I had to keep it a secret from you, for you protection. It broke my heart to leave you both but if it cured Sarah, I thought it was worth your scorn. I thought SHIELD were the good guys, I didn't know they were going to-" her words were choked off by a sob. "This is all my fault, I'm so sorry."

Loki put an arm around Lisa and drew her to him as she cried.

"Where do you come into this?" Tim asked Loki.

"I am Loki of Asgard, and I am the reason Lisa was offered that deal, although it was brokered without my knowledge or permission."

"Why? What could you want with a human woman? And in the space of a few weeks, you're married? What is this, some mail-order bride deal?"

Loki could hear the dark undertones in her father's voice, and he couldn't blame him. Still, he had something more pressing on his mind at the moment.

"What is a mail-order bride, exactly?" he asked.

"I'll explain later," Lisa said, wiping her eyes but unwilling to leave Loki's arms.

_'Shall I tell them?'_ Loki asked.

_'If you don't mind.'_

"There is a prophecy," he began. "It says that your daughter and I would marry. For various reasons, my father did not like this idea, and so he stripped Lisa's birth parents of their immortality and sent them to Midgard, to Earth, before she was born." He didn't think it was worth mentioning the children who might destroy the universe.

Tim and Sarah sat there for seemingly endless moments.

"Wait, does that mean you're an alien?" Sarah asked her sister.

Lisa's tongue felt glued to the roof of her mouth so Loki answered for her.

"She is."

"Back up a second," Tim spoke up. "If your father wanted you two separated, why are you together now?"

"Following a transgression in Asgard-" he really wasn't going to go into the whole trying to conquer Midgard debacle either. "My mother thought that your daughter could be good for me, that having been raised with human values, she might teach me some humility, but my father wouldn't hear of it, not until my mother had died. Then he brokered the deal for me to come to earth and meet Lisa."

"What do you mean, brokered a deal?"

"We are aliens, so it is only polite to ask permission before coming to Midgard, especially with organisations such as SHIELD. My father learned that you were ill," Loki looked to Sarah, "and he used that as a bargaining chip to get Lisa to agree to the arrangement."

"You saved my life," Sarah said to Lisa, who wiped her eyes and sat up.

"Don't thank me yet," she said ominously. "What I haven't told you is that SHIELD knew I was an alien long before I did-"

"Because of your gift?" her father asked.

"No, because of my parents' autopsy, and because… I had apparently managed to heal myself a little after I was stabbed, which is why I lived." She took a deep, shuddering breath.

"But SHIELD didn't come around until you were twelve," he argued.

"That's what I thought too. I just thank god we weren't in the digital age then because if they had looked over my parents' autopsies any sooner, I think they would have taken me out of the care system then, but you adopted me before they could."

"But… I'm sorry, I just can't get my head around this." Tim was wondering if perhaps his daughter had suffered a psychotic break.

"I'm not crazy Dad. Tony Stark got me a copy of my file, so I can prove it all. SHIELD have been watching me since I was a child."

"Surely we would have known."

"Do you remember when Gran suddenly surfaced and wanted to nullify your adoption of me?" Lisa asked. "She was a SHIELD agent. So was my first boyfriend, Phil, and my some of my teachers, my dentist, my doctor; I've been surrounded by imposters."

She could remember that Phil had an unnatural interest in psychic phenomenon and was always talking about it, or asking her to try tests to see how psychic she was. Another fascination of his was faith healing; at the time she had used his interest in that as proof that he didn't know she was telepathic but looking back now, she could see that he had known about her healing herself as a child and was trying to either get her to admit it, or demonstrate her gifts.

She hadn't known about her healing then and even now, wasn't confident she could do it again. Luckily at that time, she had recently lost a friend over inadvertently reading her mind and accidentally answering unasked questions. It had made Lisa paranoid about making sure no one else ever found out.

"But with your mind reading, couldn't you tell who they were?" her father asked.

"Remember I once told you that some people's brains were too scrambled to read?"

Her father nodded.

"They were SHIELD agents, they had some kind of device that scrambled their brainwaves. That was actually one of the reason's I liked Phil, because I didn't have to hear all his inane thoughts, like with other boys." She paused, then swallowed down her fear as she prepared for the worse revelation.

"What is it?" Sarah asked, her voice trembling.

As Lisa looked up at her sister, her tears spilled over.

"SHIELD really wanted to study my healing ability. I read in my file that they staged a drowning at my swimming club, they were behind my school's yearly visits to the children's ward, and that car crash Phil and I were in was also staged, but nothing they had tried had worked so they hit closer to home, they… they gave you leukaemia. I'm so sorry."

The silence that fell over the group felt heavy and foreboding.

"That's not possible," her father eventually managed to say.

"Apparently, it is," she argued, her tears falling faster. She clung to Loki's hand as if he were a rock in a stormy sea. "They injected her with a retrovirus called…"

How could she forget what it was called?

_'Ssh, relax, you're under pressure, that's all.' _Loki stroked her back, trying to sooth her. "It was called human T-lymphotropic virus type I or HTLV-1. According to the records SHIELD kept, it causes T-cell leukaemia and lymphoma."

Lisa looked to her family, afraid of their reaction. "I'm sorry, Sarah, I'm so, so sorry."

Sarah, who was also crying by this point, launched herself at her sister in a rugby tackle type move. Loki tensed, expecting violence but instead Lisa found herself wrapped in a fierce hug.

"It's not your fault, Lis, you saved me! It's not your fault."

Both women were sobbing hard then and Loki shared a look with Tim, who seemed to have been struck dumb by these revelations.

"It seems I owe you my thanks for saving my daughter," he nodded towards Loki.

"The credit for that beings to Lisa, I had nothing to do with brokering the deal that saved Sarah."

Tim looked away.

When the sisters separated, they sat side by side, their arms still around each other. Lisa looked to her father, who kept his eyes averted.

"Dad?" Tears welled in her eyes as she looked at her father. Slowly, he turned to look at her, his expression pained. "Daddy?"

"Your mother," he choked out, then seemed to think that the term needed clarification. "My wife, did they…?"

"No, Dad, that was a car accident, SHIELD had nothing to do with Mum's death, I swear."

Sarah held her sister tighter, as if to compensate for their father's aloofness. His thoughts were too confused to predict his reaction.

"Dad!" Sarah yelled. "She's still Lisa, the girl you and Mum raised, the girl who I grew up with, the girl who hit Mandy Rice when she tried to bully me, and who helped me paint my nails and taught me to do my make-up, and who shaved her head the first two times I had chemo…" Her words trailed off as her tears threatened to overwhelm her, but a squeeze from Lisa helped her to stay on track. "Not only did she find a way to cure me, she got us both out of that awful place."

"Look," Tim sat forward, his elbows on his knees and looked to Lisa "I know that being an alien seems very exciting and it could explain your telepathy but, well, have you tried _not_ being an alien?"

Lisa did the head tilt and have him 'the look', the one that asked if he was being serious.

"I mean it, Lisa, you were human for twenty eight years, you can be human again."

"Dad, I was never human, I just _superficially_ looked human. My telepathy is alien, my lack of serious illness is down to being alien, my healing myself after I was stabbed is because I'm an alien. I am an alien, Dad, I always have been, I just didn't know it."

"God, that sounds like it comes straight from the Biggots Handbook." Sarah rolled her eyes, clearly unimpressed with her father's reaction. "Stop acting like a racist and give _your daughter_ a hug."

Tim got to his feet and with some prodding from her sister, Lisa stood up and met him half way.

"You'll always be my daughter, Lis, and I'll always love you but, this is going to take some time to come to terms with." Hesitantly, he raised his arms and just as hesitantly, Lisa stepped into his embrace.

Sarah caught Loki's eye and grinned at him. Unfortunately, he didn't feel anywhere near as optimistic as she seemed to be.

As the embrace continued, both parties seemed to relax into it and Sarah grabbed Loki's hand, trying to drag him from the room. He gave her a suitably derisive look but she was unperturbed, simply pulling harder.

_'Go,'_ Lisa told him. _'She just wants to give us some time alone, and get to know you. Expect the third degree.'_

Reluctantly, Loki allowed her to lead him, in a roundabout way, to the kitchen, whereupon she dropped his hand and began sorting through the cupboards. Once she had found the tea and set the kettle boiling, she jumped up on the kitchen side with a bag of crisps and crossed her legs.

"So, you're an alien?" she asked, offering him the bag of crisps, which he declined.

"Some would say I'm a god."

"Can you walk on water?"

"I suppose."

"Turn water into wine?"

"Why wouldn't you just conjure wine?"

"Good point. Can you 'conjure' enough food to feed five thousand?"

"I can't fathom a reason I would want to, but yes."

"Fair enough," Sarah laughed. "So you're like, married to Lisa or something?"

"According to the ancient traditions of Asgard, yes, but it's not legally binding, here or at home."

"So it's like a trial marriage?"

"I think of her as my wife."

"So why don't you want to marry her?"

"I didn't say that I don't. However I find the Midgardian need to label everything odd. Not everything is quantifiable, especially in terms of relationships."

"But you are sleeping together, right?"

Loki realised she was testing him, perhaps trying embarrass him. "Yes, she's a very adventurous partner in that respect."

Sarah was the one who blushed. "Wow, talk about TMI!"

Loki frowned.

"Too Much Information," Sarah explained.

Loki smirked. "Well, you opened that particular door, you can hardly blame me for walking through it."

"Fair enough. So what does being an alien mean? Can you do any cool stuff?"

"What did you have in mind?"

"I don't know, you're the alien, you tell me."

Loki held his hand out, generating a green flame that hovered over his palm, until he snuffed it out.

"Wow, okay, that's a pretty cool party piece."

Despite her rather uncouth and immature attitude, there was something charming about the girl, and clearly she was far more open minded than her father. He decided to do something nice for her since not only was she import to Lisa, he needed to make at least an effort to get along with her family, and she seemed like the easier one to please.

_'What does your sister like?'_ he asked Lisa.

_'Um, I don't know, Zac Efron, the Twilight books, kittens, the usual stuff.'_

_'I was thinking more of a gift.'_

_'Bribing my family into liking you, good plan,' _she laughed._ 'She's always wanted a pair of Jimmy Choo boots.'_

_'Can you show me?' _

* * *

Lisa looked into Sarah's head and showed Loki the memory of the boots she wanted.

She was still hugging her father in the living room, as if they were stuck in that moment, unwilling for reality to intrude, as it inevitably would when they separated.

They were shocked out of the embrace by Sarah's scream and while Lisa wasn't worried, her father clearly thought that the arrogant, alien, would-be son-in-law was harming his youngest, and dashed from the room. Lisa followed but at a more sedate pace.

Before she reached the kitchen, she could already feel Loki's distaste and as she stood the kitchen doorway, she couldn't help but smile at the scene before her.

Sarah was literally hanging from Loki like a barnacle, her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck, one Jimmy Choo boot gripped in each fist as she kissed his face. She was still squealing "Thank you," and "I love you," in between kisses.

"Please lower your voice, you might shatter the glass," Loki said dryly.

To be honest, Lisa thought that she was lucky that Loki hadn't turned her into a toad.

_'Don't tempt me.'_ He glared at Lisa.

"Get off him!" Tim cried. "For god's sake, Sarah, have some decorum."

"Leave her alone, Dad," Lisa chided. She knew his bad mood came from her revelations, but he wasn't the only one having a hard time dealing with the new state of affairs, and taking his anger out on Sarah was _not_ acceptable.

His words had the desired effect however, and Sarah ceased clinging to Loki, only now she danced around the room.

"Why don't you go and pick out a bedroom while I make the tea," Lisa suggested. "We'll be here for a few days at least."

"Can I change into my boots?"

"Of course you can. And Tony said that he and Pepper keep some clothes kept here that you can use, at least until we can get some more."

Lisa ran from the room, leaving Tim alone with them.

"I'll just go… help her," he said, ducking out.

Lisa turned away and began spooning tea leaved into the pot Sarah had found

_'Are you all right?'_ Loki asked, coming up behind her and resting his hands on her shoulders.

_'I am,'_ she assured him, although she wasn't sure he believed her. _'He's not usually like that, he's very calm and mild mannered normally. He'll come around, he's just a bit stuck in his ways, that's all, he has trouble coming to terms with change.'_

_'He seems rather elderly, if you don't mind me saying. And your sister seems younger than her years.'_

She turned around and put her arms around his waist, resting her head on his chest.

_'Right on both counts. By the time Mum and Dad gave up on having a family naturally, they were too old to adopt, there's a lot of competition for new born babies so they fostered older children instead, and ended up wanting to adopt us. As for Sarah, she's been ill, on and off, for almost five years, and my Dad tended to baby her. She also missed a lot of school, she took her GCSE's but she relapsed before she could start her A'levels.'_

_'How old is she?'_

_'Eighteen, but she acts more like fourteen, it's like she's stuck as the age she was diagnosed. I'm sure whatever SHIELD did to her won't have helped that.'_

_'That's not your fault,'_

_'I know.'_

_'You don't sound like you believe it though.'_

Lisa gave a long sigh and Loki leaned back and put a finger under her chin, tilting her head up.

_'Nothing that has happened thus far is your fault, it's all other people manipulating you and those around you for their own gain. I should know, I've manipulated enough situations to my advantage over the years.'_

_'Thank you.'_ She offered him a weak smile. _'You don't have to stay if you don't want to, we'll be fine here.'_

_'And where else would I go?'_ he asked.

_'Stark has warmed up to you a lot, I'm sure you could stay at the Tower.'_

_'Perhaps I should have said, where else would I want to be.'_

_'Okay but if you're staying, no turning my family into amphibians.'_

Loki rolled his eyes. _'Very well, if you insist.'_

* * *

Dinner that evening was a tense affair, with everyone walking on eggshells for fear that the tension, simmering just below the surface, would erupt.

"So," her father said when he could stand the silence no longer. "What do you do, Loki?"

"Do?"

"Yes, your profession, or job title?"

"Well, I hadn't really thought about it in those terms but I suppose, God of Mischief and Prince of Asgard."

"Right… Well… What exactly does that entail?"

Loki decided not to go into his activities in recent years.

"Keeping the peace between the realms, popping down to Midgard every now and then to keep up my reputation here."

"And what does keeping the peace involve, exactly?"

"Mostly fighting, battles, training, more battles. Basically, just lots and lots of fighting."

"Right. And will Lisa be joining you in these battles?"

"I will begin training her, she needs to learn how to defend herself, but whether or not she chooses to become a warrior is up to her. For the time being however, we will reside on Midgard protecting this realm. It is unlikely I will be called upon to protect any other realms."

"Right." Tim sipped his wine and silence fell upon them once more.

"What are the other realms like?" Sarah asked.

"Well, there are nine in total," Loki began to explain. "Yours we call Midgard. Asgard is described as a shining city in the sky, which it is, I've also heard it described as a paradise, although your sister likened it to something called Trump Tower. Jotunheim is mostly an icy wasteland, home to the Frost Giants, while the Storm Giants live in the more temperate regions. Muspelheim is the realm of fire…"

Sarah hung on every word he said, taking everything in. Tim sat silently, almost sullenly.

Once Loki had finished, Lisa tried to inject some levity into proceedings.

"How do you feel like a shopping trip tomorrow? You have no clothes here and we can stay for as long as we want. Tony tells me that the local town has a lot of nice shops."

"We can't afford to be shelling out for a new wardrobe," Tim argued.

"What about the lottery win I left for you guys?" Lisa asked. Her payment from SHIELD had been disguised as a win on the National Lottery. It was also, supposedly, how she could afford to take a year off to go backpacking around the world.

"That's your money," he said darkly.

"I left that money to make life easier for you and Sarah."

"Money isn't everything. Besides, I need to get back to work."

"I'm sorry Dad, I should have said something, but SHIELD forged your resignation, I don't know if you'll still have a job to go back to."

A heavy silence descended once more.

"So, how do you know Tony Stark?" Sarah asked Lisa.

"Loki saved his life," Lisa beamed, proud to tell her family of Loki's heroism.

_'Hardly heroism, and I didn't do it for Stark.'_

_'No, but you did protect him from Thor, and that was a heroic thing to do.'_

Despite a few attempts to revive it, the conversation died after that and everyone chose to turn in early.

Lisa visited Sarah to begin helping her to deal with her experiences at the hands of SHIELD but thankfully, while their tests had been intrusive and they had been denied their freedom, they didn't seem to have been needlessly cruel to her. Lisa probably wasn't the best person to act as therapist to her sister, but she would find someone she trusted once they were settled, in whatever capacity that may take.

While Lisa visited with her sister, Loki sat with his mother's journal and tried to decipher the magic being used. His first, admittedly weak, attempt earned him a paragraph of text on the first page.

_You're going to have to do a lot better than that to learn my secrets, Loki, but I trust that you are up to the challenge._

The pang of grief he felt upon reading her words surprised him with its intensity. Of course she knew that he would be the one to try and read her diary and not only didn't she mind, she welcomed it and challenged him to do better.

He missed her and more than anything, he wished that he could take his final words to her back.

_'Are you okay?'_ Lisa appeared in the door to their room.

_'No.'_ Loki favoured her with a bitter sweet smile. _'But one day soon, I think I might be.'_


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen **

Loki remained at the house the next day, while Lisa took her family into town to shop. Still feeling resistant, her father would only let her buy him a second pair of trousers, two shirts and some underwear.

Lisa was far more open and despite her father's disapproval, bought herself the best part of a wardrobe and many accessories.

Lisa had packed a bag before she left New York but she also bought herself a few things; they had left the farm house in a rush after all, and she hadn't thought to bring a few items. Given recent events, she certainly wasn't going to willingly return to a house owned by SHIELD any time soon.

They stopped for lunch in a small café and after a few more purchases, Lisa drove them back to the villa.

"So, why didn't Loki join us?" Tim asked, seemingly nonchalantly, but Lisa could tell he was still very unsettled.

"When we went to Asgard, he was given his mother's diary, he's trying to read it."

"Whoa!" Sarah stuck her head between the front seats. "You went to Asgard? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Um, I wasn't hiding it," Lisa explained. "It's just that so much has happened, I forgot to mention it."

"You forgot? You don't just forget something like that! What was it like?"

"Sit back and put your seatbelt on and maybe I'll tell you."

Sarah did as she was told. "So?"

"It was odd. Almost everything seems to be made from stone or gold but the most beautiful thing was the rainbow bridge, which connects the bifrost to the city. It's made from some kind of crystal and almost thrums with power, like its alive or something. I've never seen anything like to before."

With that talk of rainbow bridges and gold cities, her father was now quietly convincing himself that Lisa was delusional, and Loki was sharing in her delusions.

"Can I go with you next time?" Sarah demanded.

"I don't know if there'll be a next time, and if there is, I don't know if I can bring you. I'll ask though."

"Cool. So if you're an alien, can you do magic like Loki, or can you just read minds?"

"Well Loki sais I can do as much magic as him, with practice, and according to the clan I come from, Loki says I should have the ability to shapeshift."

Tim was now wondering if Loki wasn't some kind of cult leader who had indoctrinated Lisa with his lies. A bit like scientology, but worshiping Norse gods rather than aliens.

"Oh, that would be so cool!" Sarah said. "What can you change into? If you can turn into a dog, we can play fetch, or if you become a horse, I could ride you! That would be amazing."

"Easy, girl," Lisa laughed. "I've only known I'm an alien for about two about days."

"Oh, come on, you must be able to do something!"

There was one thing. Loki hadn't had a chance to teach her much yet, but he had showed her how to do this on Asgard, the only thing she worried about was how her family would take it. Well, she was worried how her father would take it. Still, he needed shocking out of believing her insane.

"Well, once we broke the curse that was keeping me human, Loki showed me what I would have looked like if I'd been raised among my people. I can't do much else but can change to and from that pretty easily, if you want to see?"

"Yeah!"

"You sure? It's very… different."

"Lisa, just show me, plea-se."

"Okay, but we're nearly home so let's wait until we're behind locked gates; I don't want to be causing any car accidents."

As soon as she put the car in park, Sarah was out of the car and opening Lisa's door.

"Show me, show me!"

Lisa glanced at her father, took a deep breath, and adopted her Frost Giant appearance.

Sarah seemed almost on the verge of hyperventilating, but from excitement rather than from fear. Her father on the other hand, appeared to have been shocked into a catatonic state, even his thoughts seemed frozen.

"Oh, this is _so cool_! Next Halloween we are getting you a dark braided wig and you are _so_ going as a Na'vi from Avatar."

"Right, because being an actual alien isn't good enough, I have to dress as a fictional alien," Lisa teased.

"People don't know what a Frost Giant is, they do know that a Na'vi is though. Or Star Trek had some blue aliens, I think they even have white hair too, so you wouldn't need a wig, just some antler things."

Lisa smiled as she reverted to her human appearance, then pulled her sister to her and kissed her forehead. "You are crazy, you know that?"

"Takes one to know one," Sarah said, employing one of the time honoured arguments of sisters since time immemorial.

"That it does. Give me a hand with the bags in the boot, will you, I think Dad might be out here a while."

"It's called a trunk over here," Sarah reminded her.

"And you clearly watch too much American TV," Lisa argued as they got their purchases from the boot-slash-trunk.

"Dad will come around, you know," Sarah said quietly as they headed inside.

"I hope so."

"He will. Remember when Cousin Barry came out as gay a few years back? Dad was totally shocked and appalled, but he attended Barry's Civil Partnership two years ago, I even got him to sign a petition in favour of gay marriage last year. He's just old and stuffy, it takes him some time."

"I know." Lisa put her arm on Sarah's shoulder to stop her. "Thank you."

"What for?"

"For being the best little sister about all this. I know it can't be easy."

Sarah grinned. "Please, I grew up watching sci-fi, this is like the best thing ever."

She did have a remarkable thirst for science fiction, a hobby that Lisa had never shared to a great degree (other than her penchant for watching horror films late at night) but she had sat through more than her fair share of sci-fi and fantasy shows and movies, all in the name of being a good sister.

"Still, you're an amazing young woman, Sarah. You've handled everything life has thrown at you with such grace; I really admire that about you and I don't think I tell you that enough. I love you."

"Don't go all mushy on me," Sarah teased. "I have a reputation to uphold, you know."

"As what? The Biggest Fangirl-slash-Geek on Planet Earth?"

"Yup. And BTW, you should totally audition for the next Star Trek movie, they'd save a bundle on make-up because you can look like a freak for free."

"You know, you should be more careful about what you say now that you're healed, I'm not afraid to fight you now that you're healthy again."

"Yeah, right, you couldn't beat up a hamster."

* * *

Lisa was baking chocolate cake. They'd been here for five nights now and things were still uneasy, so Lisa had been baking enough cake and cookies to feed a small army to help her relax. Thankfully, Loki adored her baking and was happy to devour anything she made.

She also realised that back at the SHIELD house they had stayed in, it had been Loki, not Thor stealing her cakes. She didn't mind, in fact although she didn't mind how much he ate since she made so much, she still hid some of it for him to find. Since they were always telepathically linked now, she gave Sarah the task of hiding the treats but to date, Loki somehow always found it, leaving only the plate and a fork behind. One day she'd figure out how he did it.

She was mixing the frosting for the cupcake currently in the oven, when her father came in.

"How are you?" she asked him.

"Oh, fine. I've, uh, had a few chats with the university now; they haven't filled my position but they have arranged cover until the end of the school year. They say we should meet when I get back."

"What did you tell them?"

"I told them we'd had to go to America for an experimental treatment for Lisa; short notice, generous benefactor, not thinking clearly, that kind of thing. They were quite supportive, actually, especially once they heard that Lisa was in remission. I think they'll take me back."

"Good, I'm glad. And Lisa's not in remission, they assured me she was cured, the cancer won't come back, ever."

"Look, Lis, I just wanted to say, I'm sorry. I, uh, I've never been one for flights of fancy and, well frankly, everything you've told me sounds like something out of an HG Wells novel."

Lisa opened her mouth to reply but Tim held a hand up.

"No, no, I know it's real; much as a tired to dismiss the stories from New York last year as mass hysteria and a terrorist attack, I can't deny the truth any longer but I, uh, I'm just going to ignore the bits I can't deal with and treat you as my daughter-"

"I am your daughter."

"-and maybe things can get back to normal."

"I'm not sure I was never normal, Dad, but you've put up with my weirdness so far, so I'll try and keep any additional weirdness to a minimum around you."

"Thank you."

"Do you want to hug? I'm covered in flour and icing sugar but-"

"I can handle a bit of flour."

He stepped towards her but before they could embrace, a blinding flash light outside the window distracted them.

"Was that lightening?" Tim asked.

"Uh, I don't think so." She had a bad feeling that she did know what it was, and made her way outside through the back door.

"Lady Lisa, there you are. You look well."

"Thanks, I am."

"And you must be?"

"Oh, god, sorry. This is my father, Tim Mason. Dad, this is- oof!"

A dark haired ball of energy barrelled into her. In a split second Lisa had a choice to make, remain standing and risk Sarah hurting herself (running into a Frost Giant was rather like running into a wall), or absorb the momentum and allow herself to fall to the ground. The instinctive desire to protect her family made her choose option two and while it was ungraceful, she wasn't hurt. Sarah somehow managed to remain standing.

"Oh my God, you're Thor!"

"Indeed I am. And you are?"

Lisa manoeuvred herself into a sitting position and gestured with her hands. "My sister, Sarah; Dad, Sarah, meet Thor."

"Thor," the dry tones of Loki reached them as he came out of the house. "You always did like to make an entrance," he said, offering Lisa a hand to help her up.

_'Thanks.'_

"Brother, it is urgent that I speak with you." Thor explained.

"Brother? You're Thor's brother?" Sarah stood with her mouth agape as she looked at Loki, then she looked to Lisa. "So you're like, Thor's sister-in-law? Oh my god!"

Loki tried to ignore Sarah's, as Lisa called it, fanirling, and faced his brother. "The humans have this wonderful device, Thor, they call it a telephone. I'll show you how it works if you'd like."

"This is not something that can be discussed over the phone, brother. We need to talk."

"Oh my g-" Lisa put her hand over Sarah's mouth. Now was clearly not the time for hero worship.

"What's wrong?" Loki asked, becoming serious.

"I believe SHIELD has been compromised by Hydra, and Fury is dead. There is chaos and-"

"What about the Avengers?" Lisa interrupted.

"Captain America and the Black Widow have been branded traitors and their whereabouts are unknown. Stark has gone to Germany in search of an old Hydra base from World War two, which he believes may have some answers."

"I hardly think that will be much help," Loki said.

"Apparently Hydra has been part of SHIELD since its inception, so there might be something," Thor explained.

"Go on."

"Hawkeye's whereabouts are unknown, and Banner is laying low, trying to contact Rogers, Romanoff and Barton."

"What can I do?"

"Banner believes that there may be another Hydra base in New York, one with more recent information. He wants us to try and find it."

"Then let's go." With a green shimmer, Loki's black suit transformed into his armour, but without the cape and helmet.

"Let me come," Lisa added.

"You are not trained for battle," Loki said softly, taking her aside.

"No, but I am a skilled telepath, and this is a hidden base, right? Besides, Hydra are just humans and I'm pretty much indestructible now. Let me help."

"Her gift could be very useful, Brother," Thor agreed.

Loki knew when he was defeated. "Very well, but no unnecessary risks," he sad to Lisa.

"Agreed."

With a wave of his hands, she was wearing the battle armour he has conjured for her once before and she turned to her family.

"Stay here, do not leave, do not answer the phone and do not let anyone in, okay?"

They nodded.

"Jarvis?"

"_Yes, Lisa?_"

"Look after them, please?"

"_Of course. Rest assured, the house has enough security to survive a sustained assault, and there is a bomb shelter in the basement capable of withstanding a nuclear attack_."

"Thank you."

She quickly kissed her family, then ran to join Thor and Loki on the bifrost landing site.

"I hope Tony has an Act of Aliens clause in his insurance," she said as she entered the scorched circle the bifrost had left.

Thor looked to the sky. "Heimdall?"

"Oh, the first batch of cakes need to come out in ten minutes!" Lisa remembered to yell at her family before the bifrost enveloped them.

Sarah and Tim watched in awe as white light surrounded the three, and then they were gone.

"Oh wow," Sarah said in awe. "I can't believe she knows Thor. And Loki is his brother! I love that leather look too, so cool! Way better than that stuffy suit he's been wearing. I need to get some leather trousers, or pants as they call them. Oh my god, this is huge! Massive! I have to tweet about- damn it, I still don't have a phone."

"Um, what just happened?" Tim asked.

* * *

It had been a long few days. Hydra had been stopped but there were casualties, lots of casualties. Everyone was battered and bloody from the events, even the Asgardians, although they had fared well compared to most of the humans.

"That was fun," Loki told Thor. "I haven't had that much enjoyment since, well, a long time."

"You call that fun?" Lisa asked.

"Tell me that wasn't thrilling, Dear Heart?"

Lisa tried to remain po faced but she couldn't. "Okay, maybe there were times when it was… perhaps, possibly a little bit… exciting."

"It was a good battle," Thor agreed with them. "I am only sorry that we did not learn of events sooner; we might have saved more lives."

"We did everything we could," Banner assured him.

They were meeting below Stark's newly rebuilt waterfront house, where there were no windows for anyone to see that the Avengers had assembled, all except the Black Widow and Hawkeye. The criminality of their actions as part of SHIELD was still being debated, so while Natasha was defending herself to congress, Clint thought it was best to lay low for a while.

"And SHIELD is gone now," Steve added. "I didn't always believe in their methods, but they did their best to protect this planet. What do we do now?"

"Come work for me," Stark offered.

"As what? A scientist? A receptionist?" Steve asked.

"As Avengers; global security has just been privatised, gentlemen. And lady. At least for the time being."

"Thanks for the offer but I'm not sure how viable that is," Bruce said.

"Viable, yes. Legal, no. Needed, definitely. I'm the only one of us with the resources to continue the good fight.

"Feels like jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire," Steve said. "No offence, Stark."

"Anyway, offer's there for anyone who wants to take me up on it."

"Thank you, I shall consider your offer carefully," Thor said.

"I'd like to get back to my family," Lisa added. "Perhaps we can think it over for a few days? If you don't mind us staying at the house a little longer?"

"Take as long as you need, I don't think I'll have the time for a vacation for quite a while."

"Fury is hunting down rogue Hydra operatives," Steve added. "I've got a friend to try and look up, then I think I'll try and find Fury, help him to round them up."

"I should also probably warn you all that my office is fielding a lot of calls over the events of the past few days," Stark added.

"What do they want?" Bruce asked.

"The usual; the TV people want interviews and the government types want to blame someone."

"What should we do?" Thor asked.

"My office are giving the standard 'no comment' answers and I suggest we leave it that way. Right now, SHIELD are the bad guys and we're the good guys. Anything we say could change that, which might hinder us going forward."

"Well, you're the one with a PR department," Lisa spoke up, "so I'm happy to defer to your judgement."

"Thank you. Finally, some respect."

Lisa saw Loki stifle a smile.

"So, what do we do now?" Lisa asked.

"Leave me a way to contact you all and go about your lives," Stark said, then turned to Lisa. "You should probably call your family sooner rather than later though, you appeared on TV being thrown through a couple of buildings."

"Can I be recognised?" Lisa asked.

"Probably by those who know you. I'm answering 'no comment' to everyone who wants to know who you are. I don't know if this is good or bad, but people have already realised who Rock of Ages is. Given Banner and Thor's recent rampages though, they seem willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. You even have a fan-club on facebook, apparently, where people share stories of your saving them."

"You think no one will want justice for my actions in New York?" Loki sounded incredulous.

"Some will, the majority seem okay with you though and you have most of the news media in your corner, and that's half the battle. If push comes to shove, I'm sure we can spin some tale of mind control or an evil twin or something."

"And you really think people will believe that?"

"People used to think Norse gods and aliens were fictional. After all that, you'd be amazed what you can get people to believe now."

"And what about all of you?" Thor asked. "You have worked with Loki out of necessity so far, but are you willing to trust him in the future?"

"Thor, whatever your intentions, I have no plans to become one of your band of merry men," Loki said with derision.

"Well, I had no plans to become Iron Man, things change, Loki-Lou, you gotta role with the punches. As I understand it, this is going to be your home for the foreseeable future and I don't know about you, but I get pretty pissed when someone threatens my home."

Loki gave stark an incredulous look. "Wasn't it you who told me that you would avenge the Earth?"

"Well, turns out you weren't a very good conqueror, so nothing to avenge there. Now that we know Coulson's alive too, it's kinda hard to blame that on you as well. Plus, you saved my life from Thor so… Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trust you any further than I could throw you, but then I felt that way about SHIELD too. Sometimes you have to make a deal with the devil."

Loki smirked. "Well, since you asked so nicely, I _might_ consider it."

"Great. Well Pepper's coming in from Washington, her plane should be landing any minute, so if no one has any other business…" Stark looked around the table. "Great, meeting adjourned. Don't forget to leave your contact info on the way out and you can PM me on twitter if you find any important information." Stark left the room.

No one spoke for a while.

"I don't know what the future holds right now," Steve said. "But under the right circumstances, I'd be happy to work all of you again. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a flight to catch."

"And I have what passes for a life to get back to," Banner said. "I'll walk you out."

"Can we go home now?" Lisa asked Loki and Thor. "I'm dying for a hot bath, and I'm pretty sure I have tarmac in my hair."

"Take my hand," Loki told her, holding his other hand towards Thor. "Are you joining us?"

"No, I must return to Jane, she will be worried."

"You're leaving me to my own devices?"

"I was never your keeper, Brother." Thor smiled. "She was."

Thor followed Steve and Bruce out and Lisa swivelled her chair to face Loki.

_'You're not going to get all weird about this 'keeper' business, are you? Because I swear, that was never part of the bargain I struck.'_

_'I think, Dearest, he meant that you are my conscience.'_

_'Oh, okay, good, 'cos you know, bondage isn't really my thing.'_

Loki chuckled.

_'Can we go home now?'_ Lisa asked.

_'Darling girl, I am home.'_ The smile he flashed wasn't his largest, by far, she didn't even see any teeth, but it was heartfelt and genuine. _'But I shall return you to your family.'_

She knew what he meant, that wherever she was, was his home. She knew that without a shadow of a doubt, because she felt exactly the same way.


End file.
